Freedom of Assembly and Petition: The First Amendment, Its Constitutional History and the Contemporary Debate

The First Amendment of the US Constitution's Bill of Rights guarantees the protection of freedoms through a number of clauses. Among these, the least explored is the Assembly and Petition Clause. Most literature about the First Amendment omits sustained consideration of the core concepts of assembly and petition, which date back to the Magna Carta. This omission exists despite the fact that the US Supreme Court has termed these rights "among the most precious of liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights" (United Mine Workers v. Illinois Bar Association [1967]).

This is the first anthology to focus exclusively on the fundamental constitutional freedoms of assembly and petition, and to analyze them as distinct foundational rights within the First Amendment. Editor and law professor Margaret M. Russell has selected authoritative articles that masterfully illuminate the origins, history, scope, and contemporary relevance of the right of the people to gather (assemble) in order to urge (petition) the government to address their concerns.

The first section examines the textual origins of assembly and petition as a unitary clause in the First Amendment and explains the historical roots of the interdependence of the two concepts. Because scholars usually break up this clause into two mini-clauses, the remaining sections of the anthology address the Petition Clause and the Assembly Clause separately. In the second section, the focus is on the Petition Clause, which has generated significant scholarly attention in the last two decades in areas as diverse as libel, immigration, and antitrust law. The third section looks at the Assembly Clause, which has sparked considerably less legal attention, perhaps because it is often included in analyses of freedom of speech.

This highly accessible and well-organized anthology should be read and appreciated by all who have an abiding interest in our basic constitutional rights. It will be of great value to students and scholars of the law, American history, and political science.

Margaret M. Russell is a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, specializing in civil procedure and constitutional law, particularly the First Amendment. She is a member of the American Law Institute and is a longtime leader in the American Civil Liberties Union, the Equal Justice Society, and other law and policy organizations.