The ACLU represented Barbara Brannon, Dale Buscher, Jacqueline Cabasso, Richard Ceisler, Dorothy Headley, Marie Lyndon, Susan Moon, Eveanne Pearson, Laurel Prager, Ellen Rosenau, and Ronald Serviss, who were arrested, along with 1,000 other people, in June of 1983 for participating in a non-violent protest outside of the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory. The demonstration occurred after an announcement that cruise missles were to be deployed in Western Europe, and the protestors believed that direct action was necessary "to prevent the arms race from spiraling into a nuclear war." They were accused of "willfully and maliciously obstructing a roadway," but the protestors maintained that their attempts to block entrance to the laboratory were not malicious.

The ACLU argued that the "malice" requirement of Article 647 of the Penal Code was being ignored with increasing frequency in the protest context and had come to be used as a "general street sweeping device."