Freedom of Assembly
Purpose of demonstration: to make the
public aware of the problem; to
influence public officials to change
policy
What is the freedom of assembly?
• Right to gather to express opinion.
• The 1st Amendment protects peaceful
meetings and demonstrations
• Founding Fathers assumed people would
demonstrate against the government- and
allowed it
• Long before American Revolution- people held
protests
What types of assembly are allowed?
• All types, if peaceful
• Meetings: you have the right to meet in political
parties, interest groups, organizations, etc
• Demonstrations: you have the right to
demonstrate and bring political opinion to public
officials
–
–
–
–
Go out on strike and walk in a picket line
Demonstrations during Civil Rights movement
Anti-war demonstrations
KKK and Nazi marchers
Supreme Court thinking
• An assembly must be peaceful
– Ruled that the right to assemble is so basic that it cannot
be denied
• Civil Rights Movement
– The Civil Rights movement could never have existed
– Ruled that young people have right to march to South
Carolina statehouse, and stand in front of it holding signs
that read, “End Segregation”– had been arrested for doing
that and released Edwards v. South Carolina, 1963)
• Even extremist groups have rights
– Supreme Court let stand that Nazi Party could march in
Skokie, a community in Illinois with many survivors of the
Holocaust (Nationalist Socialist Party v. Skokie, 1977)
Limits to freedom of assembly
(not absolute, few 1st Amend protections)
• Supreme Court must balance: protect the
individual’s rights vs promote the public good
• 1. NO VIOLENCE- you cannot:
– Incite people to commit violence, block a public
street or highway, shut down a school, endanger
life, property or public order
– If an angry crowd of onlookers gets violent, that’s
their problem. The police cannot arrest the
peaceful demonstrators for what violent onlookers
do.
Limits to freedom of assembly
• 2. No trespassing on private property
– Demonstrations must be held on public property,
streets, sidewalks, public parks.
– Anti-abortion demonstrators cannot block access
to an abortion clinic
– Anti-abortion must keep 8-feet away from a
woman going into an abortion clinic
Limits to freedom of assembly
• 3. The government can regulate “time, place,
circumstance”
– Government can set, time, place, manner
– Government cannot censor what is said at
demonstrations
– Government can require a permit or advance
notice (to prepare police presence)
– Government has right to prevent demonstration
from becoming a riot, traffic jam
Is it Constitutional? (yes or no)
Time:
1. The police say you must have a permit before you hold a demonstration?
2. The police charge a higher fee for controversial groups because they need
extra police for crowd control?
Place:
3. Police arrest protestors holding a demonstration outside of the courthouse.
4. Police arrest demonstrators near a school because they disrupt normal school
activities
5. Police arrest people hanging out on street corners.
Circumstance
Circumstance:
6. The police arrest protesters because they block access to a building
Who was being violent?:
7. the police arrest peaceful demonstrators for disturbing the peace
8. the police arrest protesters because the onlookers became violent
Landmark Cases
1.
Cox v. New Hampshire, 1941
Supreme Court ruled that local government may require advance notice of a demonstration via a
permit
2.
Edwards v. South Carolina, 1963
Civil Rights activists held a peaceful rally at the state capitol in Columbia, South
Carolina to protest against segregation. Leaders were arrested and convicted for
disturbing the peace. Supreme Court ruled for demonstrators– “a State cannot make
criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views”
3. Cox v. Louisiana, 1965
Supreme Court ruled that you cannot hold a demonstration near a courthouse
in order to influence the proceedings inside- like a jury trial.
4. Gregory v. Chicago, 1969
Dick Gregory led march for civil rights in Chicago. When white residents formed a
crowd and
became violent, the police arrested the black protesters. The Supreme
Court ruled that peaceful
demonstrators cannot be punished for what onlookers
do.
Landmark Cases
5. Coates v. Cincinnati, 1971
The Supreme Court ruled that a city cannot pass vague laws
simply to prevent people from hanging out on a sidewalk or
street corner
6. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 1972
The Supreme Court ruled that you cannot hold a
demonstration near a school if it disrupts normal school activities
7. Forsyth County v. Nationalists, 1992
White supremacists held a march in Georgia to protest the
creation of a federal holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
8. Madsen v. Women’s Health, 1994
The Supreme Court ruled that anti-abortion protesters cannot
block access to an abortion clinic.