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The 2020s have so far been an incredibly hostile era to protest in the United States. The latter stages of the first Trump Administration witnessed police backlash to peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrations and during Joe Biden’s presidency, thousands of pro-Palestine student activists across the country suffered police violence and arrest. Trump’s second term has unleashed a torrent of assaults on protest and dissent, from revoking visas and disappearing activists, to withholding federal funds from universities that won’t dismantle diversity initiatives.
These attacks on political expression strike at the heart of American democratic principles. Not only does the Constitution protect free speech, the nation’s founding history also seemingly legitimizes the right to protest. The United States is, after all, a country born of dissent. As a result of that history, those rights and freedoms were enshrined into the very first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Or so the story goes.
While American history is full of those claiming the Revolutionary right to resist, it is also full of officials fighting to shut them down. The historical record demonstrates that since the dawn of the republic, the right to protest has been challenged and contested by those in power. Recognizing this legacy is critical as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches in 2026.
To many early Americans, particularly those within the Washington and Adams administrations, self-government rendered popular protest illegitimate and obsolete. While dissent may have been required to protect colonial liberties under British imperialism, Americans now governed themselves. Samuel Adams, a former Patriot leader, declared that while protest had “served an excellent purpose” during the Revolution, “as we now have constitutional and regular governments and all our men in authority depend on upon the annual, free elections of the people, we are safe without [it].” As…
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