Freedom of speech, assembly, and association

The right to speak, to assemble, to organize, and to associate with whom one pleases — including in active criticism of the state — is among the most basic guarantees in a free society. When the government cannot answer dissent with persuasion, it should not be permitted to answer it with arrest, surveillance, audit, or other instruments of state power. Public officials should not be able to deploy government against people because of what they say or whom they associate with.

This ideal is breached by surveillance of lawful protesters, criminal charges that punish constitutionally protected speech, permits denied or granted based on viewpoint, the targeting of critics through nominally unrelated state mechanisms — tax audits, investigations, licensing actions — and formal or informal blacklisting from government participation based on speech or association. The standard is universal: it applies whether the speech is left, right, religious, secular, popular, or unpopular.

Further reading: National Constitution Center Interactive Constitution — First Amendment.