Defending Rights and Dissent Releases Resources Equipping Activists to Protect Free Speech Rights

Posted on October 2, 2018

Defending Rights and Dissent, a partner organization affiliated with the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, has released a collection of online resources for instructing activists how to preserve their right to peaceful protest. The resources, known collectively as the Anti-Protest Legislation Toolkit, aim to equip demonstrators with the fundamental knowledge and practices to successfully navigate state regulations bounding the exercise of free speech. 

As CCDBR has noted in previous articles, activists are now facing an unprecedented wave of state draft legislation, and even enacted laws, which drastically restrict the manner in which citizens may exercise their First Amendment right to free expression and public assembly. The Toolkit takes this unsettling trend into account in the guidance and instruction it offers on a wide range of topics which the practice of peaceful demonstration touches upon, from laws regulating boycott action to campus free speech policies to the legal and financial burden that organizers may be expected to take on. In a time of unprecedented hostility toward activists and their associated activity, such accumulated expertise is indispensable to mounting successful, and safe, civic action.  

You can view the full Anti-Protest Legislation Toolkit at Defending Rights and Dissent here.