In the class action lawsuit, the Court of Appeals held in a unanimous decision that the police may not lawfully arrest people merely for being present at a demonstration.

One of the class attorneys John Stainthorp, a civil rights lawyer with People's Law Office in Chicago, responded to the decision saying, "We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has strongly reaffirmed the right of the people to protest the actions of the government and express their opposition to the war in Iraq. The actions of the City of Chicago and its police department in 2003 in illegally arresting hundreds of people whose only crime was voicing their political opinions was an outrageous assault on our rights under the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution to freely express our opposition to the war without fear of arrest and prosecution."

The 24 page decision written by Judge Posner affirms the Constitutional right to protest and stresses that the police cannot make mass arrests of demonstrators without probable cause. In describing the illegal actions of the Chicago Police, Judge Posner writes, "What they could not lawfully do, in circumstances that were not threatening to the safety of the police or other people, was arrest people who the police had no good reason to believe knew they were violating a police order."

The Court of Appeals recognized that the case is already more than seven years old and urged its expeditious resolution. Janine Hoft, also a civil rights attorney at People's Law Office and class counsel said, "We hope the new mayor will heed the 7th Circuit's call and at long last recommend justice for aggrieved demonstrators rather than continuing to pay private defense lawyers millions of dollars to defend illegal actions of the police department."

The class action lawsuit has been litigated by a legal team of attorneys and legal workers associated with the National Lawyers Guild. Counsel on the case has included civil rights attorneys Melinda Power and Jim Fennerty. Other People's Law Office attorneys who have worked on the case have involved Joey Mogul and Sarah Gelsomino.