Litigation

Alan Beaman spent over a decade in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the 1993 murder of his ex-girlfriend. The MacArthur Justice Center represents Mr. Beaman in his lawsuit against the City of Normal and the three former Normal police officers who orchestrated the wrongful conviction.

The MacArthur Justice Center formed a coalition of attorneys, community organizations and individuals to file a historic class action lawsuit seeking federal court oversight of the Chicago Police Department's (CPD) operations on behalf of thousands of individuals, predominately Blacks and Latinx, who have been subjected to the CPD's policy and practice of using excessive force, sometimes in racially discriminatory and brutal ways.

On June 1, 2020, Theresa Taylor was participating in a peaceful protest on issues of police brutality and racial injustice when she was unlawfully arrested, charged, and, upon being released from jail, given a verbal banishment order. The banishment order prohibits her from returning to the area, the Country Club Plaza (known as the Plaza),...

Those who are incarcerated have few ways to vindicate their rights when they suffer constitutional harms. The courts provide one avenue, but they are not without their limitations. Filing suit is expensive, and with little to no means of earning money while incarcerated, fronting expensive court fees is almost impossible. One lifeline is the federal in...

Terry v. United States—a case before the U.S. Supreme Court—sought to correct the unfair and incorrect exclusion of low-level crack offenders from relief clearly provided by the bipartisan First Step Act, passed by Congress in 2018. The United States reversed its position in this case, and filed a brief supporting our position. The Court appointed an amicus...

After Leon Thomas was subjected to despicable conditions of confinement in a non-ADA compliant solitary confinement cell, despite demonstrated and severe physical challenges including a transtibial amputation, he sued officials of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The DOJ asserted failure-to-exhaust when answering Mr. Thomas’ complaint only to disavow it 16 times during the course of...

In June 2021, the Supreme Court denied our petition for certiorari. The Stewart family continues their fight for justice and to hold accountable the officers who killed Luke Stewart. A cartoon of a police officer beating an unarmed civilian (caption: “protecting and serving the poop out of you”); a clip from a Chris Rock sketch...

60 people—including members of Black Lives Matter – Chicago, #LetUsBreathe Collective, GoodKids MadCity, and Brighton Park Neighborhood Council—join together to file an unprecedented lawsuit seeking justice after they were viciously attacked by Chicago Police Officers at the historic protests against racist police violence this summer. Many of the protesters suffered concussions or broken bones after...

In the fall of 2016, Marcus Mitchell traveled to North Dakota to join the peaceful water protectors in their demonstration against the construction of the DAPL. As a Diné from the Navajo nation, he was answering the Great Sioux Nation’s call to peacefully stand in support of the Nation’s sovereignty and to help them protect...

In May 2021, Derrick Jones, Jerome Jones, and Darnell Rusan filed a lawsuit alleging the City of St. Louis and the City Justice Center staff violated their constitutional rights by indiscriminately and excessively macing them, and depriving them of water to their cells. The suit details individual abuses that each man survived, and shows how...