We are still grinding through our two Standing Rock police brutality cases, Wilansky and Poemoceah. After we overturned an earlier dismissal of Poemoceah’s case and found an excellent expert witness, the court dismissed it again. We have appealed, with arguments tentatively scheduled for early 2027. Meanwhile, an appeals court upheld the dismissal of Wilansky’s case. We are considering asking the Supreme Court to hear it. 

Our longstanding case, Boudjerada, et al. v. City of Eugene, et al., challenges Eugene police’s brutal response to the May 2020 George Floyd protests.
In 2023, we won a ruling that the city’s curfew, announced with five minutes’ notice and followed by immediate arrests, was unconstitutional. An appeals court shielded the police chief and city manager from liability through “qualified immunity,” but the ruling against the city stands. We are headed to court-ordered settlement talks and, if necessary, a trial in 2027.

We are defending People’s City Council, Los Angeles, against claims arising from an Instagram post supporting a protest against an Israeli weapons company’s presentation near a synagogue. After we challenged the lawsuit, the plaintiffs withdrew it, filed a revised version, and we moved to dismiss the case.

We are also challenging a sweeping Michigan grand jury demand for student employee union records dating back to January 2023, apparently connected to Palestine solidarity protests.

We represent longtime clients Rogue Climate and 350 Eugene in Rogue Climate and 350 Eugene, et al. v. State of Oregon. Oregon law bars law enforcement from collecting or keeping information about political activities without reasonable suspicion of a crime. Yet Oregon Department of Justice officials admitted under oath that they continue to monitor our clients’ social media and other activist activities without that basis.

The lower court dismissed our claims, on the perverse grounds that the only remedy available was to order the state to follow the law. We appealed, arguing that this is exactly the protection the court should provide. Arguments were heard in June 2026, and we remain optimistic about the outcome.

We settled one of our oldest cases, Black Unity, et al. v. City of Springfield, et al., over this past summer. Filed in 2020, it challenged outrageous police behavior during a march responding to a skeleton hanging from a noose across from a Black person’s home in Springfield’s lily-white Thurston area.

Early this year, the judge allowed all our claims to proceed, strongly supporting our claims of retaliation for protected speech, excessive force, unlawful surveillance, and conspiracy to violate civil rights under the Ku Klux Klan Act. At long last, the defendants offered a meaningful settlement, allowing us to close the case.

In Gilliam v. Miller, we represented a Black man subjected to racial profiling in the very white small town of Coburg, Oregon. Police forced him to kneel at gunpoint, then held him handcuffed in a police car for nearly an hour without legal grounds.

The court rejected our racial profiling claim but allowed his challenge to the length and conditions of his detention to proceed. That finally convinced the city to settle in July 2026.

Stabbin’ Wagon serves unhoused people and people with addictions through needle exchanges, HIV testing and other harm reduction services. This raised the hackles of Medford, Oregon officials, police officers and a pro-police social media operator, who publicly lambasted our clients and urged the Oregon Health Authority to revoke their grant.

In September 2026, the court dismissed our First Amendment retaliation claims but allowed us to clarify claims of conspiracy to deprive civil rights. The ruling included a rare recognition that addiction-related disabilities are protected by federal laws prohibiting such conspiracies between government and private actors.

In People v. Toledo, our client, Rick Toledo, participated in a support rally for students occupying a building to pressure Cal Poly Humboldt to take a stronger position against the genocide in Palestine and ICE raids.

He was not a major participant in the takeover, but a brief interaction with a university staff member led to a late-night arrest warrant on suspicion of felony conspiracy, battery, false imprisonment and assault. After he made bail, a second warrant authorized a search of his home, where his phones and computers were seized.

Months later, he was charged with misdemeanor battery, false imprisonment and assault, a serious reduction from the initial felony accusations. The judge has agreed to a diversion whereby the charges are dismissed after six months.

We also secured an agreement for the Arcata Five, activists arrested during a mutual aid effort helping folks at an unpermitted campsite move their belongings prior to an eviction date. The judge has agreed to a diversion whereby the charges are dismissed after six months.

Presently, in California, we are defending Direct Action Everywhere activists engaged in open rescue liberations, with trial pending. In Portland, Oregon, we favorably resolved the case of an activist arrested at a foie gras protest at a restaurant.

We help lead Protect the Protest, a coalition of 48 organizations opposing lawsuits used to silence organizing, and participate in networks tracking anti-protest legislation.

We are also working with Trans Alliance Lane County to reform jail housing and search practices for transgender people.