The Constitution may include the right to assemble, speak, and petition the government, but those rights are under broad attack from Republican bills in five states.
Over the past few weeks, Republican legislators across the country have quietly introduced a number of proposals to criminalize and discourage peaceful protest.
The proposals, which strengthen or supplement existing laws addressing the blocking or obstructing of traffic, come in response to a string of high-profile highway closures and other actions led by Black Lives Matter activists and opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Republicans reasonably expect an invigorated protest movement during the Trump years.
Protesters who gather without permit, or enter areas like roadways, have long been subject to arrest, but the charges from these incidents are usually misdemeanors, with protesters usually released after a short detention. Charges are often dropped after a period of time.
However, under the new legislation, civil disobedience could carry much higher penalties and protesters could even be individually sued. A Minnesota bill includes a year of jail time for blocking a highway. In North Dakota, one new law would even allow motorists to drive over protesters who get in the way.
“A law that would allow the state to charge a protester $10,000 for stepping in the wrong place, or encourage a driver to get away with manslaughter because the victim was protesting, is about one thing: chilling protest.”
These are not increases in the penalties for violent behavior or vandalism, but for non-violent protesters.
In addition to the highway-protesting bill, Minnesota lawmakers also proposed a separate piece of legislation that greatly increases penalties for nonviolent cases involving “obstructing the legal process.” Under the bill’s language, nonviolent obstruction of authorities would carry “imprisonment of not less than 12 months” and a fine of up to $10,000.
The bill’s language is vague enough that police can use it to charge anyone who disagrees with their actions in an area. It opens the possibility of a cascade, in which anyone who speaks up against a single arrest or pulls out a phone to record police activity also becomes a target.
“The statute is very heavily abused by police to charge people with crimes in response to minor resistance to police based on good faith disagreements with what they are doing,” Kushner told The Intercept in an email. “It is frequently used in response to people who verbally challenge or try to observe/record police at protests.”