ICAP represents three plaintiffs who were targeted for their expressive protest activity at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). In May 2024, several CWRU students painted their campus Spirit Wall with statements of support for Palestinian people. The president of CWRU disagreed with the statements and hired contractors to remove them. When the hired contractors attempted to spray paint the mural, Plaintiffs stood in front of the wall to protest the effort to censor the statements. The contractors then asked campus police to move the students away from the wall. The officers refused to do so. Instead, the officers directed the painters to spray-paint the wall, even though Plaintiffs stood directly in front of it. Using industrial sprayer machines, the painters coated Plaintiffs in toxic paint along with the Spirit Wall. ICAP represents Plaintiffs, arguing that the CWRU president and campus police officers retaliated against Plaintiffs in violation of their First Amendment rights, and subjected Plaintiffs to excessive force in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.
