"Political opposition is not rebellion. A protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows."
"Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest. Such conduct exceeds the scope of the First Amendment, of course, and law enforcement has apprehended the perpetrators accordingly. But because rebellions at least use deliberate, organized violence to resist governmental authority, the problematic incidents in this record clearly fall within the considerable day-light between protected speech and rebellion."
Federal courts face unprecedented, rapid assertions of presidential power that strain constitutional law and emergency docket procedures. Judges are working to adjudicate claims arising almost hourly across multiple courts. The Seventh Circuit halted a National Guard deployment in Chicago and clarified that political opposition and organized protest remain within protected speech. Advocacy for legal or policy changes, organization, civil disobedience, and lawful firearm possession do not transform protest into rebellion. Isolated unlawful acts by participants exceed First Amendment protection and are prosecutable, but rebellion requires deliberate, organized violence resisting governmental authority.
Read at Intelligencer
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