Protesting is a form of assembly, protected both by the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law. It involves publicly voicing opposition to perceived injustices and advocating for action.
Here’s what the Constitution says about the right to peaceful protest:
First Amendment Protections:
The First Amendment safeguards various forms of freedom of expression, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
It protects freedom of speech, religious expression, and the press.
Specifically, it prevents Congress from “prohibiting … the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Supreme Court Cases and Changes:
In the 1969 case of Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, the Supreme Court upheld the right to protest while allowing limited restrictions.
The court ruled that any licensing requirement for “free expression in publicly owned places” is unconstitutional unless narrowly defined and objectively applied.
OnApril 17, 1993, a significant verdict was reached in the case of Rodney King, a black motorist who was brutally beaten by Los Angeles police officers during his arrest in 1991. Here are the details:
Sgt. Stacey Koon (42 years old) was found guilty of permitting excessive force during King’s arrest.
Laurence Powell (30 years old) was found guilty of using excessive force.
Officer Theodore Briseno (40 years old) and fired rookie Timothy Wind (32 years old) were acquitted of using excessive force.
All four officers were innocent of a second charge of aiding and abetting the other officers in the beating.
On This Day in Space! April 17, 1970: Apollo 13 Returns from Aborted Moon Mission By Hanneke Weitering
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The huge Saturn rocket carrying the Apollo 13 spacecraft lifts off the launch pad at Cape Kennedy, Fla., April 11, 1970.
On April 17, 1970, Apollo 13 returned to Earth after narrowly avoiding a deadly disaster in space. This was supposed to be the third mission to land on the moon.
Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise launched on April 11 and were two days into their trip to the moon when an oxygen tank exploded, and NASA had to abort the mission. When the astronauts called mission control to report the incident, Swigert uttered the famous quote, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
With the service module running out of oxygen, they opted to use the lunar lander as a lifeboat. Because the oxygen was also used to power the spacecraft’s fuel cells, they were also running out of power. They shut down all nonessential systems and turned down the heat, and spent four cold, miserable days heading back to Earth. [NASA’s Apollo 13 Mission of Survival in Pictures]
They had to go back into the service module for reentry, and they didn’t know if their heat shield had been damaged by the explosion. Luckily they survived reentry and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
Emancipation Day is a holiday in Washington, DC to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on April 17, 1862.
A wide range of events are arranged in Washington DC to mark Emancipation Day. These are spread throughout the month of April and include exhibitions, public discussions, presentations of historic documents, the laying of wreaths, concerts, and poetry readings. The events aim to educate a broad spectrum of people about the history of the municipality of the District of Columbia in general and slavery in particular. Attention is also paid to the African origin of many slaves and racial issues in modern American society.
Public Life
April 17 is a legal holiday in Washington DC. Local government offices are closed and many public services do not operate. However, many stores and businesses are open and there are no changes to public transit services. In some years, Emancipation Day may be the reason to extend the deadline for filing an income tax return (Tax Day). In 2007, the observance Emancipation Day in Washington DC had the effect of nationally extending the 2006 income tax filing deadline from April 16 to April 17. This 2007 date change was not discovered until after many forms went to print.
In all other areas of the United States, April 16 is a normal day and public life is not affected.
Background
Formal slavery was legal until 1865 in most of the area that is now the United States. Many slaves were of African origin and many slave owners were of European descent, although some other groups also had slaves. By 1860, there were about four million slaves in the United States. On April 17, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, who was the US president at the time, signed the Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed more than 3000 slaves in the District of Columbia. However, slavery did not officially end in the rest of the United States until after the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 until 1865.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution formally ended slavery in the US. It was proposed on January 31, 1865, and ratified by 30 of the then 36 states in the same year. However, it was only ratified in Mississippi in 1995. Slavery and the racial divisions, upon which it was based, have had and continue to have huge implications for individuals and American society as a whole.
Emancipation Day in Washington DC marks the anniversary of the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act. On January 4, 2005, legislation was signed to make Emancipation Day an official public holiday in the District of Columbia. Elsewhere in the United States, the emancipation of slaves is celebrated in Florida (May 20), Puerto Rico (March 22) and Texas (June 19). There are also similar events in many countries in the Caribbean, including Anguilla, Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Many of these events occur during the first week of August as slavery was abolished in the British Empire on August 1, 1834.
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