Table of Contents
What does the First Amendment say about the right to protest?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Which right does the First Amendment not protect?
Categories of speech that are given lesser or no protection by the First Amendment (and therefore may be restricted) include obscenity, fraud, child pornography, speech integral to illegal conduct, speech that incites imminent lawless action, speech that violates intellectual property law, true threats, and commercial …
What speech is protected by the First Amendment?
The Court generally identifies these categories as obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, fighting words, true threats, speech integral to criminal conduct, and child pornography.
What type of right is the right to protest?
The right to protest may be a manifestation of the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of association, and the right to freedom of speech. Additionally, protest and restrictions on protest have lasted as long as governments have.
Is the First Amendment a constitutional clause?
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of religion, or that would prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the right to petition …
Does Michigan’s First Amendment protect the right to protest?
In part, this is because the First Amendment also protects the right of the people peaceably to assemble. While there are some legal restrictions on these types of assemblies or protests, Michigan is currently trying to infringe on the rights of protestors.
What does the First Amendment protect us from?
When we do that, the First Amendment protects us from government punishment or censorship for what we say or write, particularly on matters of politics and public affairs — generally. Still, not everything we say or do because of such speech is protected.
Do protests have a right to protest?
This means that violence will not be tolerated as part of a protest, and protestors cannot sit in the streets to block traffic because this is unlawful. The right to protest is most protected in public places such as parks and sidewalks.
Does the First Amendment protect speech directed to imminent lawless action?
The key here is a connection to an immediate threat to public safety. In a 1969 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said there is no First Amendment protection for speech that is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action.”