09-2768, 09-2843 & 09-2901 Vodak v. City of Chicago

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Civil Rights
First Amendment; qualified immunity

Where a city’s police arrested marchers en masse despite waiving the permit requirement, the city is not entitled to qualified immunity.

“The Chicago police likewise have an unwritten policy of waiving the permit requirement for a spontaneous demonstration, including (so far as we can determine) a ‘planned spontaneous’ demonstration (oxymoron that it is), such as the one in the present case. There is no contention that the police superintendent lacked authority to waive the permit requirement for such a demonstration. Anyway it’s not the waiver that the plaintiffs are complaining about. It did them no harm. They are complaining about the decision to arrest them en masse. That was the decision of the superintendent, who is the policymaker regarding mass arrests. All the culpable conduct took place when the plaintiffs were present on Chicago Avenue, reasonably believing that they had permission to be there. The decision to waive the permit requirement did not subject the City to liability—if anything, it shielded the City from liability for curtailing freedom of speech and assembly.”

Reversed and Remanded.

09-2768, 09-2843 & 09-2901 Vodak v. City of Chicago

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Kendall, J., Posner, J.

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