Peaceable Assembly: Protests, Collective Belonging, and Refuge in a Forgotten Right / John Inazu

For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

Protests dominate the news. And while we’re familiar with freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, and freedom of the press—what about the freedom of assembly? The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution—also contains “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

But what exactly does that secure? How does this foundational, but often forgotten, right impact the shape of democracy, undergirding and making possible a flourishing public life? And are we prepared to defend the full application of these rights to our political rivals? Those we disagree with?

Legal scholar John Inazu (Washington University, St. Louis) joins Evan Rosa for a discussion of the freedom of assembly—its history, meaning, interpretation, and application—as well as how it impacts the ability for citizens to gather to demonstrate and protest.

Show Notes

• Read the Constitution of the United States of America (1787)
• Learning to
• Get your copy of Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly
• Click here to download a free version of Liberty’s Refuge.
• The First Amendment
• Introducing peaceable assembly.
• “I was working for a federal judge and working on a First Amendment case, looked down at the text of the First Amendment and saw the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and I thought to myself, I've had three years of law school and four years of legal practice, and I've never thought about the Assembly Clause.”
• Ecclesia as a counter political entity
• “I can’t assemble alone.”
• “Know Your Rights” by The Clash
• Three historical points about interpreting the assembly clause
• The grammar of the assembly clause
• Assembly and Petition are two distinct rights
• The right of association
• The right of privacy
• Assembly is the right of association
• Where are the limits of a protest? Under assembly? Or under the free speech clause.
• “we ought to care about the values that drive different parts of the Constitution.”
• The groupness—the idea of collective expression
• Understanding the “peaceable” side of assembly
• “The best law enforcement understand that there has to be some breathing space.”
• Reform mode vs revolution mode
• Policing assembly as more of an art than a science
• Peaceable assembly and collective belonging
• “Civil liberties are for losers.”
• Practical steps to upholding peaceable assembly as a right and civil liberty
• Exercise your rights
• Defend the rights of everyone

About John Inazu

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches criminal law, law and religion, and various First Amendment courses. He writes and speaks frequently about pluralism, assembly, free speech, religious freedom, and other issues. John has written three books—including Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect (Zondervan, 2024) and Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale, 2012)—and has published opinion pieces in the Washington Post, Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, USA Today, Newsweek, and CNN. He is also the founder of the Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and is a senior fellow with Interfaith America.

Image Citation

Original caption: “Demonstrators sit, with their feet in the Reflecting Pool, during the March on Washington, 1963] / WKL."

Original black and white negative by Warren K. Leffler. Taken August 28th, 1963, Washington D.C, United States (@libraryofcongress).

Colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://www.loc.gov/item/2011648314/

Production Notes

• This podcast featured John Inazu
• Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
• Hosted by Evan Rosa
• Production Assistance by Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, and Tim Bergeland
• A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
• Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give