Throughout the 1970s we continued our work representing demonstrators and activists. In 1978 we represented Iranian students who were arrested at several militant demonstrations in Chicago against the Shah and his secret police (SAVAK), and obtained documentation which linked the FBI, the Chicago Police Department and SAVAK. We also represented Palestinian students who were expelled from the University of Illinois for protesting against Israeli Day. In 1983, together with Susan Gzesh, we successfully fought the government’s efforts to deport Dennis Brutus, a noted South African poet and political activist, and won him political asylum. We participated in demonstrations against U.S. intervention in Central America and helped to form the Chicago National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Central America Task Force, defending activists arrested for civil disobedience and sanctuary networking, staging a major war crimes tribunal as part of a national effort, and organizing a march on contra headquarters at the 50th anniversary of the Guild. In 1984, Janine Hoft became a full time PLO lawyer and represented anti-intervention and anti-nuclear demonstrators, successfully pursuing a necessity defense to trespass charges at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
In the 1980s we represented women who were arrested on International Women’s Day for chaining themselves to the Playboy Club, demonstrators arrested at protests against the Rock Island Arsenal, Pledge of Resistance demonstrators, Armed Forces Day demonstrators, Hiroshima Day demonstrators, and Sanctuary supporters, anti-apartheid protesters toxic waste demonstrators, homeless activists, anti-CIA protesters, anti-Zionist protesters, and demonstrators who protested discriminatory CTA hiring practices. To read more about our work defending activists and social movements, click here: Continuing to Represent Demonstrators.
History by Section
Early Days
The Murder of Fred Hampton
Government Surveillance
Representing the Panthers in Downstate Illinois
Attica New York Prison Riots
The Fred Hampton Murder Trial
Prisoner Rights Work
Puerto Rican Independence Movement and the Puerto Rican Community
Fred Hampton Appeal
George Jones Street Files and False Imprisonment
Representing Demonstrators, Protestors, and Activists
Greensboro
Puerto Rico Work Continues
Police Brutality and Torture
Continuing to Represent Demonstrators and Activists
The Attica Prison Civil Case
Continuing Work in Solidarity With Puerto Rico
Fighting the Death Penalty
Sexual Abuse Litigation and Illegal Strip Search
Back to the Supreme Court
The 1996 Democratic Convention
Policy and Practice Cases
False Arrests and Convictions
Continuing to Defend Dissent
Continuing the Fight for Justice in the Chicago Police Torture Cases
Criminal Defense for Civil Rights Abuses
Jail Suicide
Opposing the Criminalization of the LGBTQ Community
People’s Law Office and The National Lawyers Guild
