3. Your Right to Assemble and Petition **
The "right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" was derived from the English history that focused on freedoms of thought, belief expression, and self governance.
But those rights of assembly and petition quickly faded into a subset of cases involving freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
NOTE TO ACTIVISTS: Although the courts focus on your free speech rights before they consider your rights to assemble and petition, activists should include a desire to meet and ask Congress to alter a federal law, or ask the Executive Branch to alter a regulation or policy, or ask a state or local government to alter a statute or ordinance in permit applications, meeting agendas, or literature to be distributed. This gives counsel an extra bite at the apple on appeal.
ENGLISH HISTORY: The rights of assembly and petition first arose from the English Nobles demand for due process in the Magna Carta in 1215.
After that, when a monarch wanted tax revenue, he had to summon the Parliament to approve the taxes.
By 1414, Parliament had gained such influence in petitioning the throne for changes in royal policy that it asserted the role of "assenter" to edicts, ratifying the king's laws and orders.
By 1669, Parliament gave every commoner the right to petition over grievances, and with Parliament's review and approval, to have the petition submitted to the monarch.
With the English Bill of Rights in 1689, individuals gained the right to directly petition the king, with immunity from :commitments or prosecutions" for speaking up.
Two generations later, King George wanted more taxes on the American colonies, Parliament wanted to relieve the tax burden on their own direct constituents, the Americans petitioned for tax relief but had no voices or votes in Parliament, and when the Crown cracked down, we got a country and computers.
AMERICAN DEVELOPMENTS: In the first 40 years of government, the federal power was so small and narrow, that few large assemblies presented petitions to Congress.
SLAVERY ISSUES IN 1830-1860: Congress began to be bombarded with petitions to end slavery in the District of Columbia or various states and territories. By 1840, the House passed a rule forbidding any consideration of petitions regarding slavery. That rule was repealed in 1845, and scores of anti-slavery petitions were published in the Congressional Record and were otherwise ignored. That led to Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, and Appomattox.
JIM CROW, GUN CONTROL, AND FEDERAL AUTHORITY IN 1875: Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1870, which barred racists from conspiring to deprive any person of their Constitutioal rights. That was tested in Louisiana in 1872 when Black voters elected Republican candidates. White Democrats rallied to install their defeated candidates. Black voters and Republican staged a peaceable effort to block a local courthouse and to petition Congress for the installation of the duly elected candidates. The Democrats disarmed the Republicans and murdered 105 petitioners.
LIMITS ON ASSEMBLY AND PETITION FOR PUBLIC FACILITIES:
But those rights of assembly and petition quickly faded into a subset of cases involving freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
NOTE TO ACTIVISTS: Although the courts focus on your free speech rights before they consider your rights to assemble and petition, activists should include a desire to meet and ask Congress to alter a federal law, or ask the Executive Branch to alter a regulation or policy, or ask a state or local government to alter a statute or ordinance in permit applications, meeting agendas, or literature to be distributed. This gives counsel an extra bite at the apple on appeal.
ENGLISH HISTORY: The rights of assembly and petition first arose from the English Nobles demand for due process in the Magna Carta in 1215.
After that, when a monarch wanted tax revenue, he had to summon the Parliament to approve the taxes.
By 1414, Parliament had gained such influence in petitioning the throne for changes in royal policy that it asserted the role of "assenter" to edicts, ratifying the king's laws and orders.
By 1669, Parliament gave every commoner the right to petition over grievances, and with Parliament's review and approval, to have the petition submitted to the monarch.
With the English Bill of Rights in 1689, individuals gained the right to directly petition the king, with immunity from :commitments or prosecutions" for speaking up.
Two generations later, King George wanted more taxes on the American colonies, Parliament wanted to relieve the tax burden on their own direct constituents, the Americans petitioned for tax relief but had no voices or votes in Parliament, and when the Crown cracked down, we got a country and computers.
AMERICAN DEVELOPMENTS: In the first 40 years of government, the federal power was so small and narrow, that few large assemblies presented petitions to Congress.
SLAVERY ISSUES IN 1830-1860: Congress began to be bombarded with petitions to end slavery in the District of Columbia or various states and territories. By 1840, the House passed a rule forbidding any consideration of petitions regarding slavery. That rule was repealed in 1845, and scores of anti-slavery petitions were published in the Congressional Record and were otherwise ignored. That led to Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, and Appomattox.
JIM CROW, GUN CONTROL, AND FEDERAL AUTHORITY IN 1875: Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1870, which barred racists from conspiring to deprive any person of their Constitutioal rights. That was tested in Louisiana in 1872 when Black voters elected Republican candidates. White Democrats rallied to install their defeated candidates. Black voters and Republican staged a peaceable effort to block a local courthouse and to petition Congress for the installation of the duly elected candidates. The Democrats disarmed the Republicans and murdered 105 petitioners.
President Ulysses S. Grant prosecuted the Klansmen in federal court for depriving citizens of their arms and their Second Amendment rights. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed their convictions, holding: "The Second Amendment means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government." Thus, protestors could be murdered while asserting their rights without having their murderers prosecuted by the federal government under an Act of Congress. This was the first Supreme Cort decision that analyzed the "assemble and petition" guarantee.
U.S. v, Cruikshank, 1875.
WALKING ON GRASS WAS ILLEGAL: In 1894, unemployed veterans from Ohio marched on Washington to seek peaceably the final passage of their promised bonuses. But when their leaders broke the rule of the Congress to not walk on the grass of the Capitol grounds, they were arrested.
SOCIALISTS JAILED FOR ASSEMBLY AND PETITION IN WWI: The courts upheld convictions for assembly and petition for the repeal of the sedition law, the espionage law, and the military draft.
MACARTHUR AND EISENHOWER BURN THE CAMPS IN 1932: When WWI vets marched on Washington to demand the payment of the veterans' bonus, the federal government sent cavalry under Douglas MacArthur and Dwight David Eisenhower to disperse the protestors and burn their camps.
BALANCING TEST FOR REGULATION OF RIGHTS TO ASSEMBLE AND PETITION:
BALANCING TEST FOR REGULATION OF RIGHTS TO ASSEMBLE AND PETITION:
Restrictions on licenses or permits to assemble or petition must not be arbitrary or capricious.
They must be content neutral.
They must be limited to reasonable measures regarding time, manner, place, or duration.
The restrictions must serve an important governmental interest.
The restriction must leave available other channels for communicating the message.
The restriction must be neither vague or overbroad.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT CANNOT BAR REACEFUL AND LEGAL MEETINGS: Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague denied permits for meetings and literature drops by the Committee for Industrial Organization (forerunner of the AFL-CIO) to organize unions because he deemed the CIO to be "communist."
The Supreme Court held that the right of assembly and petition was binding on all governments and that the use of regulatory power could not be arbitrary. With reasonable constraints as to time, manner, place, duration, and inflammatory content, access for assembly and petition were protected for streets, sidewalks, and parks.
Hague v. CIO, 1939.
JAILHOUSE GROUNDS: Security features of a jail justify prohibiting any demonstration on jailhouse grounds. This may focus on protections against either crowd lynchings or jailbreaks.
Adderly v. Florida, 1966.
MILITARY BASES: Even when the pubic is generally permitted to visit or cross a base, political demonstrations can be prohibited because of the strong governmental interest in keeping the military free of partisan political entanglements.
Greer v. Spock, 1976.
SUPREME COURT: The Supreme Court may bar the presence of protestors and banners inside the Supreme Court Building and on the Supreme Court grounds, but cannot bar them from the sidewalks adjoining the property.
U.S. v. Grace. 1983
CITY BUSES ADVERTISING: A city could reject ads by political candidates on its mass transit because the policy was reasonable in order to minimize chaces of abuse, the appearance of favoritism, and the risk of imposition on captive audiences.
Lehman v. Shaker Heights, 1974.
CITY BUSES ADVERTISING: A city could reject ads by political candidates on its mass transit because the policy was reasonable in order to minimize chaces of abuse, the appearance of favoritism, and the risk of imposition on captive audiences.
Lehman v. Shaker Heights, 1974.
FIGHTING WORDS: Seeking to assemble or petition with speech that tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace may be restricted.
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 1942.
HOSTILE AUDIENCE: Assemblies or speeches that threaten imminent violence or serious injury may be stopped at least when the government cannot reasonably protect the speaker or avoid the violence.
Feiner v. New York, 1951.
PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY: Convictions for breach of the peace were reversed where Black students protested racial discrimination on state Capitol grounds, police with advance notice were present, and the crowd behaved in an orderly fashion.
Edwards v. South Carolina, 1963.
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