(Washington, D.C.) – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and co-counsel filed an opposition motion to dismiss last night in Black Lives Matter D.C. v. Trump, after several defendants filed motions to dismiss the case. The case seeks to hold Attorney General William Barr and other law enforcement officers personally accountable for violating the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of peaceful protesters, and claims they participated in an unlawful conspiracy to deprive protesters of their civil rights. The following is a statement from David Brody, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“The perpetrators of this state-sanctioned violence must be held accountable for their unconstitutional assault on nonviolent racial justice demonstrators. Our own government, in front of the White House, deliberately engaged in police brutality against Black Americans, at a protest of police brutality against Black Americans. The civil rights community will do everything we can to ensure justice for those who were standing up to intolerance.”
Background:
The original lawsuit, which was filed on June 4, claims that the protesters in Lafayette Square Park were unjustly attacked by federal officers from multiple agencies, the national guard, D.C. police, and police from Arlington County, Virginia. The protesters were beaten with clubs and shields, shot with rubber bullets, knocked to the ground, and tear-gassed. The national Lawyers’ Committee is representing Black Lives Matter D.C., as well as eight individual demonstrators, including two children, who were assaulted by law enforcement.
Read the full motion here.
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org.
