U.S. Palestinian Community Network national chair Hatem Abudayyeh speaks to reporters about the March on the DNC coalition's protest plans on April 13, 2024. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

The coalition of groups planning to march near the United Center during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) later this month is still engaged in a legal battle with the city over securing a permitted route for potentially tens of thousands of people seeking to decry the party’s complicity in Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and call for the end of military aid, along with other progressive policy goals.

A decision in the case could be made this week, according to the group’s attorney Chris Williams. While the city offered a route for the March on the DNC coalition a little more than a mile long, organizers want a longer route that prioritizes main roads to reduce the chances of forced friction between police and protesters and to prevent the potentially long procession from looping back into itself — since the route would end in the park in which it begins. 

Last month, the city offered the coalition a route in which the group assembles in Union Park, marches down West Washington Boulevard, North Hermitage Avenue and West Maypole Avenue through Park 578 and then uses North Damen Ave and West Lake Street to complete the loop back to Union Park.  

Williams said the coalition previously filed a permit application to host a speaking section of the march in Park 578, at 1919 W. Maypole Ave., but told The Daily Line the coalition felt betrayed by the city announcing a first-come-first-serve signup process last week to use a speaker platform in 45-minute time slots at the park. The application window opened Tuesday. 

Williams said the city ignored — and effectively approved — the park permit application months ago. He called it “absurd” that the city could theoretically allow another group to use the space while the march is planned. 

Still, the Chicago Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) news release states priority for speaking slots “will be given to groups that have previously applied for a parade permit or assembly permit near the United Center on one of the following dates: August 19th 2024, August 20th 2024, August 21st 2024, August 22nd 2024,” which include the dates the coalition is planning to march.  

However, CDOT said groups may only apply once and may only receive one of 32 planned speaking slots, and it’s unclear if multiple coalition groups could submit different applications without violating the prohibition on duplicate applications. 

The group mainly wants a longer route that avoids narrow residential streets, Muhammad Sankari, an organizer with the United States Palestinian Community Network, one of the coalition’s lead groups, told The Daily Line. 

“The easy solution is the one that we've proposed, which is let us go right down Washington and continue down Washington so we're not going through anyone's lawns, we're not trampling anyone's flowers, and we're not then trying to funnel tens of thousands of people [through] these two quick, kind of narrow, turns,” Sankari said.

Washington Boulevard is one of the boundaries of the pedestrian-restricted security perimeter around the DNC, beyond which only people with convention credentials will be allowed to enter through limited entry points. Williams said the city lacked a justification for not providing all of Washington, claiming that security fencing may be placed next to the road but that the group could still march along the street if it's open.

The city’s legal department declined to comment on the legal case except to say that a decision is still pending from the court.