Freedom of Assembly

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 1-5

Contenidos

• Expanding the right to assemble.
• Freedom of association.
• Suggestions for further reading.

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When people hold a town meeting to complain about a local problem, such as poor road conditions, they exercise the right to freedom of assembly. So do people who gather to protest unfair treatment of racial minorities, such as African Americans. As long as a group is not breaking the law, freedom of assembly protects its right to have such meetings. It prevents the government from stopping the meeting, even if the government or its citizens do not like the group or its reason for gathering.

The freedom of association is a separate right that is related to the freedom of assembly. An assembly can be an informal meeting, such as citizens who gather at a state capitol to protest a law. An association, however, is usually a formal organization devoted to a particular cause or group of people. The National Rifle Association, for example, supports the right to own and use firearms. The freedom of association protects our right to form and join such organizations.

The freedom of assembly comes from the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which says "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble." The First Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, which contains the first ten amendments to the

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Constitution. The United States adopted the Bill of Rights in 1791 to prevent the federal government from interfering with important individual rights, including the freedom of assembly. Although the First Amendment does not mention the freedom of association, the U.S. Supreme Court decided it also is a First Amendment right.

The Bill of Rights applies only to the federal government, so state governments did not have to obey the First Amendment for a long time. Then in 1868, after the Civil War (1861-1865) ended, the United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment. Part of it says that states may not "deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law." Over time, the Supreme Court decided that "liberty" in the Fourteenth Amendment refers to many of the rights in the Bill of Rights. Because of this, state governments today must honor the freedoms of assembly and association.

Expanding the right to assemble

At first, the freedom of assembly protected only the right to petition the government, which means to ask the government to take particular action. Before the...