Appeals court to hear case of protesters blocking access to O’Hare airport

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments this week in a case about anti-Israel protesters blocking access to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, one of the nation’s busiest airports, on April 15, 2024.

The class-action suit seeks $36 million from protest organizers and affiliated groups, who left drivers stuck on a major roadway leading to the airport for hours.

Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute is representing a victim in “his complaint as a class action on behalf of thousands of others falsely imprisoned in their cars or otherwise displaced by the blockade.”

“The case defends the rights of citizens unlawfully impeded by anti-Israel, pro-Gaza groups engaging in illegal acts of obstruction rather than peaceful protest,” the institute said. It added that its “legal team seeks damages and a court injunction to prevent future disruptions like this.”

Jewish Voice for Peace, National Students for Justice in Palestine and the WESPAC Foundation are among the defendants.

A district court dismissed the class action suit in August and said that the institute’s client “was not really falsely imprisoned because he could have abandoned his car on the road” and sanctioned the institute’s attorneys, it said.

The institute appealed the following day. Ted Frank, the institute’s litigation director, said “the decision and the sanctions are based on the premise that it’s legal in Illinois for drivers to abandon their car on the highway outside O’Hare Airport for up to seven days, and they thus weren’t truly trapped.”

“This is a misreading of the precedent and the applicable statutes, as well as a procedurally improper inference against the allegations in a complaint,” Frank said. “We are confident in our chances on appeal.”