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1/ Recently, for @Genmag, I spent some time looking into the “right of the people peaceably to assemble,” one of the 5 liberties guaranteed by the #1A.
(Not the one Justice Barrett forgot...about petitioning for a redress of grievances. But related!) https://gen.medium.com/our-right-to-protest-is-under-chilling-assault-7b9f138af2a9
(Not the one Justice Barrett forgot...about petitioning for a redress of grievances. But related!) https://gen.medium.com/our-right-to-protest-is-under-chilling-assault-7b9f138af2a9
2 / We’ve all seen the thousand or so videos collected by defense attorney @greg_doucette of police assaulting, gassing, and firing at and otherwise brutalizing protesters for doing nothing more than exercising that right. https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1284526898991828992
3/ Some of those protesters were said to have committed a crime, the crime of “unlawful assembly.” But of course that is not a crime at all. Or it shouldn’t be, if you put any stock in the Constitution.
4/ I found America hasn’t been putting stock in the Constitution in a long time. SCOTUS long focused on free speech doctrine and largely ignored the right to assembly. No Supreme Court case has been decided on assembly grounds in more than three decades.
5/ Instead, little by little, this right has been gutted. States have passed new legislation chipping away at assembly rights.
Generally, it’s in response to a mass protest movement that rattles the status quo and terrifies those in power.
Generally, it’s in response to a mass protest movement that rattles the status quo and terrifies those in power.
6/ After Occupy, blocking roadways and congregating—assembling—in parks (strategies that have been employed since before the American Revolution) drew harsher penalties.
7/ Standing Rock brought a spate of laws protecting “critical infrastructure” (i.e. the pipelines that are critical to expanding fossil fuel production and hastenting the destruction of the planet). The laws, pushed by ALEC, make civil disobedience a felony.
8/ The Black Lives Matter movement, likely the largest mass movement in US history, has brought additional punitive measures, designed to stamp out meaningful protest by raising the costs of exercising these rights.
9/ Federal paramilitaries have been deployed in US cities to quell protests. Barr has suggested bringing sedition charges. Trump has floated invoking the Insurrection Act. Remember, more than 93% of BLM protests have been peaceful, i.e., “peaceable.” https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-violence-in-america-new-data-for-summer-2020/
10/ States have made it a serious crime to camp on state property or block a roadway. Florida wants to criminalize supporting a protest at which laws are broken.
The @ICNLAlliance has a whole database set up to keep track of this legislation. https://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/
The @ICNLAlliance has a whole database set up to keep track of this legislation. https://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/
11 / The ongoing case of Doe v. Mckesson may go before #SCOTUS next year. In that case, Black Lives Matter and activist @deray are being sued because someone at a #BLM protest he helped organize injured an unnamed police officer.
12 / There is no legal basis for this claim, but who knows? If the suit is allowed to go forward, as ACLU attorney @emersonjsykes told me, “no one would organize a protest.”
13/ Of course, that seems to be the point. Even if some laws don’t pass, the chilling effect may be enough to keep people home. Or maybe not…
Here's the piece. Hope you like it. https://gen.medium.com/our-right-to-protest-is-under-chilling-assault-7b9f138af2a9
Here's the piece. Hope you like it. https://gen.medium.com/our-right-to-protest-is-under-chilling-assault-7b9f138af2a9
