Chicago anti-Israel DNC protest groups handed loss by federal judge just days before start

A federal judge in Chicago handed anti-Israel protest groups a loss this week, rejecting their request for more space to protest the Gaza counteroffensive outside the Democratic National Convention next week.

Four groups seeking to organize protests – the Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Anti-War Committee, Students for a Democratic Society at UIC, and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network – asked for parade permits giving them authorization to march over an expanded area.

The judge shut them down this week, rejecting their claim that the city’s preferred protest route violates their First Amendment rights.

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They want to take their protest nearer to the United Center, one of two locations for the DNC next week, and through a street that the Secret Service and local law enforcement planners have chosen to block off during the convention as part of the secured perimeter.

The judge denied all four permits and told the groups to use a different route, proposed by the city of Chicago, according to court filings.

The groups sued the city and its transportation commissioner, alleging First Amendment violations, and asked for a preliminary injunction and for permission to march closer to the United Center.

The judge ruled against them Monday.

Chicago lawyers told the judge that the city had already granted concessions to the organizers, including allowing them to get closer to the United Center, one of two places where the convention will be held, FOX 32 Chicago reported.

Law enforcement sources previously told Fox News Digital that the original plan would have kept protesters out of sight and sound.

“We are going to basically never see a protester or rioters, period,” one source said before the court fight. “The convention sites are completely cordoned off. There will be nobody that is not authorized.”

Protest organizers reportedly expect tens of thousands of people to show up.

Separately, pro-Israel organizers are looking to conduct counter demonstrations. 

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Chicago has hosted more major party political conventions than any other city – 14 Republican conventions and 11 Democratic ones between 1860 and 1996, according to the Chicago History Museum.

Nominees coming out of Chicago conventions have included Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Bill Clinton.

The infamous 1968 Democratic Convention nominated Hubert Humphrey, who went on to lose to Richard Nixon – who was himself nominated in Chicago in 1960.

The city has also hosted third-party conventions, including Libertarian and Green Party events.

But the specter of violent 1968 clashes between anti-Vietnam War protesters and police is haunting this year’s event as the anti-Israel groups hope to push the Democratic Party to drop its support for Israel’s ongoing operation in Gaza, which came in response to a deadly terror attack that killed 1,200 on Oct. 7, 2023.

The DNC runs from Aug. 19 to 22.