(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Protesters who were attacked by federal troops in front of the White House Monday night as they were demonstrating nonviolently against police brutality sued President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and numerous other federal officials today for violating their constitutional rights.
The lawsuit was filed by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, ACLU of the District of Columbia, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the law firm of Arnold & Porter.
Hundreds of protesters were gathered Monday evening in Lafayette Square, the park in front of the White House, to demonstrate solidarity with the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement and protest police brutality, including the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The case filed today, Black Lives Matter D.C. v. Trump, on behalf of Black Lives Matter D.C. and five individual protesters who were assaulted at Lafayette Square, asserts that Trump, Barr, and numerous other high-level federal officials and line officers of the Secret Service, Park Police, D.C. National Guard, U.S. Military Police, and Arlington County Police violated protesters’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly, violated their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures, and engaged in a conspiracy to violate their civil rights.
The actions in Lafayette park were a shocking assault on the First Amendment rights of people peaceably assembled to call upon their government for action,” said Jonathan M. Smith, Executive Director, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
