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Fundamental Rights

Every day, Americans exercise the freedoms of association and assembly. Both freedoms protect expressive choices. They let individuals decide what to think and say, with whom to agree or disagree, and when and how to do so. The freedom of association safeguards membership in organizations, regardless of whether individuals, groups, or even the government approve. The freedom of assembly allows people to gather in public to express their beliefs, happily or in the angriest protest. Fundamental to a free society, these rights are not always easily enjoyed. Majorities can find their ideologies threatened, and government officials can see some kinds of association and assembly as dangerous. The exercise of these freedoms has repeatedly provoked controversies that test the nation's commitment to constitutional liberties.

The right of assembly is as old as the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution....