Demonstrators who were arrested in D.C. while protesting the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 plan to file an appeal after a federal judge dismissed their lawsuit against D.C. police.

U.S. District Court judge Amy Berman Jackson threw out the action brought by seven individuals who were detained in a mass arrest on Swann Street NW on June 1, 2020, after the mayor imposed a 7 p.m. curfew. Plaintiffs said police arrested them without probable cause, committed assault and battery, and violated their constitutional rights. D.C. police filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, calling it “vague and overly broad.” The judge granted their motion earlier this week.

Now the protesters plan to file an appeal, says their attorney, James DeVita.

“I think there are some fundamental questions here about the use of curfews,” the attorney says. “My clients weren’t doing anything other than holding up signs saying ‘Black Lives Matter.’ … They weren’t doing anything the curfew ordinance was prohibiting.”

The D.C. Chapter of the ACLU released a report following the Swann Street incident, alleging that police “kettled” — or gathered and entrapped — nearly 200 protesters with no evidence and subjected them to mistreatment in their effort to enforce the curfew. Around 80 protesters fled into nearby homes to avoid arrest.

The civil liberties organization urged the D.C. Council to modify city law around First Amendment gatherings. “The Council should consider whether D.C. law or policy should be changed to promote a more restrained police response to peaceful protests in the District,” the report said.

Witnesses of the events on Swann Street described chaos and confusion.

“I heard ‘bang bang’ and a lot of thumping and pepper spray everywhere, my eyes started burning, people screaming, and a human tsunami coming down the street, of piles on top of people,” Rahul Dubey told WAMU/DCist at the time. He was a nearby resident who sheltered dozens of demonstrators fleeing police. “I flung open this door. I was like, ‘Come in, get in the house. Get in the house.’ The police were running after these 20-and-30-year-olds and grabbing them. They’re tripping, coughing. And I was pulling them into the house.”

D.C. police arrested hundreds of demonstrators during the mass protests that followed Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis.

After police detained protesters on Swann Street, former D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham defended officers’ response to the situation.

“On Swann Street we had what was an indication of an escalation of potential violence,” Newsham said during a press conference shortly after the incident. “We have somebody breaking the law in a large group we try and get them arrested as safely and quickly as we can.”

Police conducted an internal investigation into the Swann Street incident, but the department has declined to release its findings.