University of Chicago attorneys are urging a judge to throw out federal charges against a south suburban man accused of impersonating a deputy U.S. marshal, saying in a novel argument that he was engaging in protected free speech.

[The Federal Criminal Justice Clinic client] allegedly posed as a deputy marshal on Dec. 4 at a River North movie theater. He’s accused of wearing law-enforcement garb, flashing a handgun and announcing he was a “U.S. marshal” when moviegoers asked him to stop talking on his phone. He has a history of impersonating cops, authorities said.

His attorneys, Judith Miller and Erica Zunkel of the University of Chicago Law School’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, filed a motion Friday asking a federal judge to dismiss the indictment against [the Clinic client]. They said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows [the Clinic client] to claim he’s a deputy marshal — as long as he wasn’t trying to commit another crime.

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