Enes Kanter Freedom filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Sky, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the City of Chicago, alleging his ejection from a WNBA game on August 23 and subsequent indefinite ban from Wintrust Arena violated his First Amendment rights.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, centers on an incident during an Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky game in which Freedom wore a T-shirt reading "WOMAN noun, adult human female." Freedom claims he was exercising protected political speech and that the defendants engaged in viewpoint discrimination and conspiracy based on his expressed beliefs about sex and gender in sports.
According to the lawsuit, Freedom's manager sent a courtesy text to Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca notifying him of Freedom's planned attendance. Pagliocca responded positively, but the lawsuit alleges that Sky owner Michael Alter subsequently alerted Wintrust Arena security to Freedom's expected presence.
The suit documents what Freedom characterizes as unequal treatment. The complaint states that during the game, Sky fans directed profanity and racial slurs at Freedom, including vulgar language that allegedly violated the WNBA Fan Code of Conduct. None of these fans were warned or ejected, according to the filing.
The confrontation with Sky guard Natasha Cloud occurred during the third quarter. Freedom stood and raised his arms celebrating a three-pointer by Fever star Sophie Cunningham. After Cloud made a subsequent shot, the lawsuit states that Cloud initiated "a vulgar, profanity-laced verbal tirade directed at Plaintiff Freedom personally" and "charged nearly half the length of the court toward where Plaintiff Freedom was sitting courtside."
Freedom responded by raising his arms "in confusion and disbelief," according to the complaint, but was subsequently ejected from the arena and banned indefinitely.
The lawsuit raises questions about how Alter characterized the interaction. The complaint states that Alter "subsequently mischaracterized the interaction" between Freedom and Cloud, claiming Freedom was "chirping" at Cloud before the altercation. The filing also references an OutKick interview in which Alter compared Freedom's conduct to shooting a gun at someone, stating: "I mean, to use an extreme example, when you shoot a gun at someone, you don't get a warning, 'Don't do that again.' Your action doesn't deserve a warning. You take action that becomes a threat, you don't get a warning."
The lawsuit names Chicago Women's Basketball Operations, LLC, which operates the Sky, as a defendant alongside the MPEA and the City of Chicago. The MPEA's involvement is significant because it financed and built Wintrust Arena as a public project, a detail that raises additional legal questions about whether the defendants' actions implicate state action doctrine and corresponding constitutional constraints.
The complaint alleges that the defendants "combined and conspired, and acted jointly to execute their conspiracy, to discriminate against Plaintiff based on Plaintiff's verbal and demonstrable expression of viewpoint and gender identity when they wrongfully ejected Plaintiff from a recent WNBA game."
Freedom is seeking a court declaration that the defendants violated his First Amendment rights through both the ejection and the indefinite bar from re-entry, as well as nominal and compensatory damages for his losses.
