Washington Lawyer - November/December 2020 - 35

FEATURE

TAKING LEGAL SUPPORT

TO THE STREETS
By John Murph

hen federal law enforcement shot tear gas,
pepper spray capsules, flash bombs, and
rubber bullets at Black Lives Matter protestors
in Lafayette Square park on June 1, many D.C.-area
civil rights lawyers sprang into action.

"When I saw the footage of what happened that night, I started thinking
immediately about what our legal theories would be and how quickly
we could get into court on behalf of the demonstrators because what
I had seen was really shocking to me. And I've been a civil rights litigator
for 15 years," says Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU-DC).
Michelman says that within 72 hours, ACLU-DC - along with Arnold
& Porter LLP, the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and
Urban Affairs, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- had filed a case on behalf of Black Lives Matter D.C. and several demonstrators who were assaulted during the confrontation.
In the wake of the incident, Michelman says ACLU-DC received tons of
consultation requests from Black Lives Matter organizers. "To put this into
perspective, ordinarily we would receive between 400 and 500 requests
for help in a six-month period. On June 2 alone, we got more than 200,"
he says.
In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, the plaintiffs argue that the defendants, including President
Donald Trump, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, and Secretary of
Defense Mark Esper, "had no legitimate basis to destroy the peaceable
gathering." The complaint alleges that the defendants ordered the use
of violence, which caused injury to the plaintiffs and violated their First
Amendment rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and
freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The use
of physical force "violated plaintiffs' rights under the Fourth Amendment
. . . to be free from unreasonable seizures," the complaint states. The
lawsuit seeks to prohibit officials from repeating similar incidents against
law-abiding citizens and to obtain payment for damages sustained by
the injured plaintiffs.

Marques Banks (left), a staff attorney with the Washington
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and
Francisco Mundaca of Spiggle Law Firm work with protestors
to help protect their rights.

Patrice Gilbert Photography

Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Washington Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, attended the protests on
May 30 and recalls heated confrontations between the police and demonstrators, who were separated somewhat by a large fence. "I was
supremely surprised by the level of enforcement used that night by the
police, including flash bombs and pepper spray balls [aimed at] demonstrators," Smith says. "As the night went on, it was clear that the police
conduct was really escalating and causing some of the disturbances.
Had the people been left to express their views and demonstrate that
day, I think it would have been a much different situation."

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

WASHINGTON LAWYER 35

Washington Lawyer - November/December 2020

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