America’s Most Under-Appreciated Right
In the past few months, protesters in Hong Kong have engaged in a citywide strike. In Lebanon, mass protests led to the prime minister’s resignation. In India, nationwide protests have defied government restrictions on public gatherings. Meanwhile, protesters in other parts of the world remain forcibly subdued—such as in Chinese “reeducation” camps and Saudi prisons. These examples, reflecting a range of lawful and unlawful assemblies, and the denial of assembly altogether, reveal the importance and the risks of the right to do so.
The right of assembly allows people to form and gather in groups of their choosing, and to publicly express their values and beliefs even when they conflict with the views of the majority. In the United States, this right finds an uneven reception: protests in Ferguson, Missouri; the American Civil Liberties Union outside a Massachusetts abortion clinic; and the New York Police Department sent to infiltrate Muslim student groups. Public universities have Christian groups that wanted their members to share their beliefs, Republicans have to strip Planned Parenthood of its tax-exempt status, and Democrats have to do the same to conservative religious organizations. And President Donald Trump has political protests against him. Americans across the political spectrum confront restrictions and limitations on their right to assembly.
