Coalition to March on the RNC Announces First Amendment Lawsuit Against the City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI- Over a year of denied permits and the announcement of an undemocratic permitting system, the Coalition to March on the RNC is proud to announce that we are suing the City of Milwaukee for violating our First Amendment rights. We have been clear from the beginning: we will march within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum as it is our Constitutional right to assemble, speak, and petition. The City of Milwaukee still has not provided any concrete details about the hard and soft security zones for the RNC, or about their approved “parade route.” We are taking matters into our own hands and demanding they allow us to march on the route we have been requesting permits for since April of 2023.
When Milwaukee was announced as the location for the RNC in 2022, Mayor Johnson claimed that the decision to host the RNC was a “business decision” to attract tourist dollars to Milwaukee not a political one. However, the City has bent over backwards to accommodate the racist, reactionary Republicans while stonewalling Milwaukee community members who want to have their voices heard in protest. Even their new permitting system makes it clear that their priority is catering to the Republicans and not every day Milwaukeeans. They want to force us onto their “parade route,” not a march route or demonstration route, with no guarantee it will be anywhere near the Fiserv Forum. Additionally, this permitting system allows the City to limit our march to a timeframe they decide. On the other hand, the Republicans have all week and multiple convention centers to make their voices heard.
The Coalition to March on the RNC is disappointed but not surprised that the City of Milwaukee is more concerned with letting the Republicans spread their racist agenda than letting us exercise our right to protest. We hope this lawsuit will grant us our First Amendment right to be in the streets, but no matter what the permits or the Courts say we will be marching within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum in July. We know that the people of Milwaukee are with us, and we will not let our City become a playground for the Republicans. Milwaukee’s proud history of being a city of unions, immigrants, Black and brown families, and LGBTQ people. We will not stand for the Republicans and the City of Milwaukee’s attempts to erase our diversity in the past or the present.
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