Anti-NATO protesters will not be able to march through the Loop during the NATO summit in May, an administrative judge ruled Thursday.

The ruling is the second legal defeat for the protesters, whose application to march from Daley Plaza on May 20 was denied earlier this month by city officials. The protesters appealed the denial in a hearing on Tuesday.

The protesters, led by the Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda, had been approved to march on May 19, during the G8 summit before it was moved to Camp David. City officials said the NATO summit will bring far more dignitaries and leave fewer police to monitor the protesters.

The city offered an alternate route that includes Grant Park, but activist Andy Thayer opposed moving the protest further from the dignitaries.

"The First Amendment isn't meaningful if you don't have an audience to hear your view," Thayer told the Sun-Times.