The First Amendment vs. Peaceful Protests

 

When thinking about this blog prompt, the first thing that came to my mind was about the Black Lives Matter protests I personally took part in over this past summer. Typically, a peaceful march or gathering would not be breaking any legal rules and would likely even be admired. However, this previous summer our country was facing unprecedented circumstances in the wake of a life threatening virus that was taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of individual’s all over the world. At the time, the safest thing anyone could do was stay home and away from other human beings because we still knew very little about the virus and had very few methods of treatment. Even still, the issues facing the black community within our country were reaching new heights and thousands of people came to the conclusion that it was more important to stand up for the proper treatment of ALL individuals than to stay home afraid of a virus. This became a pressing issue, especially in North Carolina, when Governor Roy Cooper banned gatherings of 10 or more for all “non-essential” activities. 

In light of this ban, protests began to be broken up and labeled as “non-essential activity”. As one can probably imagine, this infuriated the impassioned protestors. Considering the fact that young African American’s were dying at alarming rates all over the country simply due to their skin color, one could argue that protesting for drastic change was quite essential. Additionally, people felt that banning protests was a direct violation of one’s First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom to petition the government. This dilemma begs the question: What exactly does the First Amendment protect, how far can it go, and in the name of saving lives, can the First Amendment be overlooked? 

Personally, I took part in a number of protests over this summer and completely support the movement. Initially, I was convinced that banning a peaceful protest was in fact a direct violation of my First Amendment rights. However, after learning more about the Bedrock Principles, my understanding of the situation and perspective has shifted. The Bedrock Principles state that First Amendment protection is NOT absolute and that there can be exceptions in certain cases. Looking back, these protests were taking place in the midst of a pandemic that we really knew very little about at the time. Gathering for these protests was very likely putting a number of lives in danger and enabling the spread of the virus while doctors and our state government was trying to slow the spread in order to provide adequate care to those who needed it. I think in this case, Covid-19 was an unprecedented chaos that definitely called for an exception of the First Amendment in order to protect the masses. 

Article discussing the banning of gatherings found at: Executive Order Enforcement May Violate First Amendment - The Locker Room - The Locker Room (johnlocke.org)