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Exhibit Guide Home Exhibits Introduction Founding Generation Founding Documents You Be the Judge Defining Freedom The Struggle Continues Faces of Freedom Marketplace of Ideas Censorship: What Is It? Musical Hit List Draw the Line Resources Museum Map Glossary |
 Defining Freedom > Freedom of Assembly > Answer to Question 1 No. The government may limit the time, place, and manner of assemblies, but these limits must be reasonable. Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939) In Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) the Supreme Court affirmed the First Amendment right to assemble. In November 1937, a group of people gathered at CIO headquarters in Jersey City, N.J., to hold a recruitment drive and discuss the National Labor Relations Act. Mayor Frank Hague ordered police to seize the recruitment materials and stop the meeting. Hague argued that he was enforcing a city ordinance that prohibited gatherings of groups that advocate government obstruction through illegal acts. The Supreme Court ruled that the CIO’s First Amendment right to assemble had been violated. Justice Owen J. Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that, “Citizenship of the United States would be little better than a name if it did not carry with it the right to discuss national legislation and the benefits, advantages, and opportunities to accrue to citizens therefrom.” Adderley v. Florida (1966) In 1966, the court ruled 5-4 in Adderley v. Florida that law enforcement was acting within their authority when they asked 200 protestors to leave the non-public driveway of jail. The Court ruled that there was no First Amendment violation because the sheriff was not discriminating against Adderley’s viewpoints by asking her to leave and that it was in the state’s interest to maintain access to the jail. |
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