Overview
- Kanter filed a 15-page federal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which he publicly posted after filing on Thursday, Sept. 3, and seeks an injunction to lift his Wintrust Arena ban, nominal and compensatory damages, legal fees and a jury trial.
- The suit says Kanter was escorted out of a Chicago Sky–Indiana Fever game after a verbal confrontation with guard Natasha Cloud when he was courtside wearing a shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female,” and it challenges the ejection as retaliation for protected speech.
- The Chicago Sky has called the lawsuit “meritless and frivolous,” saying team officials and security removed Kanter because he rose, gestured and stepped toward the court in violation of the fan code of conduct and was judged a potential threat.
- Kanter’s lawyers named the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the City of Chicago so the court will consider whether public actors joined the team’s actions and therefore triggered constitutional limits on viewpoint-based punishment.
- The case ties back to Kanter’s and Royce White’s recent declarations for the 2027 WNBA draft to press the league’s undefined rule that “only players who are women are eligible,” and it could force legal and policy decisions about free speech, venue safety and how the WNBA defines eligibility.