With free speech, for example, the Supreme Court has in recent years defined specific kinds of modern speech-computer code, or speech on the internet-and protections for them.īut over the past 50 years, the courts have ducked that responsibility to protect the freedom of assembly, laying the groundwork for the hyperaggressive police response to protests that is observed in the streets today. This has happened with the other specifically enshrined rights. Like the right to religious expression, the founders gave the right to protest its own listing intending for the courts to give it special treatment and fashion unique legal standards that would ensure its protection. This right is recognized separately from the right to freedom of speech because the founders believed that the act of organizing a large crowd for a demonstration, parade or protest could be more powerful than individual speech, and was therefore even more susceptible to government encroachment. Constitution explicitly describes the right of the people to peaceably assemble. As a result, this fundamental constitutional right is in sore need of an update, such as a ruling that would protect protesters from the unduly harsh police response that has become all too common as a response to demonstrations in recent years. There’s a reason for that: For more than 30 years, the Supreme Court has failed to take up a freedom-of-assembly case. National Guard helicopters hovered dangerously close to protesters in Washington, capturing images and videos of the crowds, kicking up shards of broken glass and sending many looking for cover. Other tactics were harsh enough to cause severe injuries, such as loss of vision, in at least 12 reported cases. military in sonic warfare and one with the potential to cause permanent hearing loss to those exposed to it. Police in Orlando, Chicago, New York, and other cities resorted to the use of long-range acoustic devices (LRADs), a weapon frequently used by the U.S. In Portland, federal officers unleashed torrents of tear gas and paintballs, pulled protesters into unmarked vans and severely injured one demonstrator in front of a federal courthouse. Local and national law enforcement agencies, responding to crowds of unprecedented size and scale, relied on methods that were equally unprecedented. In recent months, American cities have seen widespread protests denouncing police brutality against unarmed Black people.
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