A war protest group has sued the city of Pittsburgh, claiming police officers are violating its First Amendment rights to free speech.

It also is seeking a temporary restraining order in the matter. A hearing on the issue will be held at 10 a.m. today before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti.

Pittsburgh Organizing Group, along with five protesters, filed the 15-page complaint yesterday afternoon, claiming city officers have threatened to arrest them for holding a hunger strike and protest outside an Army recruiting station in the 3700 block of Forbes Avenue in Oakland.

The protest began Sept. 4 and, according to the lawsuit, is expected to continue 24 hours a day until Sept. 30.

As part of the vigil, up to 30 protesters stand, walk, sit or lie down near the recruiting station to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

According to the complaint, filed on the group's behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the protesters are careful to leave a 5-foot-wide passage on the sidewalk, which is 10¹/₂ feet wide, to allow pedestrians to walk unimpeded.

Police have issued a number of citations, however, claiming the protesters are blocking the sidewalk.

On Sept. 7, city police officers and Cmdr. Kathy Degler, of the Squirrel Hill station, approached one protester, Michael Butler, who is part of the hunger strike, and ordered him to move. He had an unrolled sleeping bag next to him and was lying parallel to Forbes.

When he didn't move, the officers issued him a nontraffic citation for "obstructing highways and passages."

Since that time, officers have cited Mr. Butler on at least two other occasions; cited Patrick Young, another protester, on Sept. 17; and arrested one woman, De'Anna Caligiuri, on Sept. 8 when she was lying on the sidewalk. She was taken to the police station, processed and detained for two hours.

The lawsuit names two other protesters who intend to participate in the fast and vigil in the future.

Attorneys claim that if officers continue to threaten protesters with citations and arrest, it is a burden on their First Amendment right of freedom of expression and political speech.