Lahmann v. Grand Aerie of Fraternal Order of Eagles10/12/2005
common good; give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer."
See also, e.g., NC Const, Art 18 (1776) ("the people have a right to assemble together, to consult for their common good, to instruct their Representatives, and to apply to the Legislature, for redress of grievances"); NH Const, Art 32 (1784) ("The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble and consult upon the common good, give instructions to their representatives, and request of the legislative body * * * redress * * *."); Pa Const, Art IX, ยง 20 (1790) ("The citizens have a right in a peaceable manner to assemble together for their common good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances.").
Thus, the drafters of the earliest state constitutions labored under the recent memory of British attempts to suppress town meetings and assert control over representative governments. It is not difficult to infer that those actions figured prominently in colonists' decisions to safeguard the right to assemble, and to fuse it to guarantees of the right of instruction and the right to petition the legislature for assistance in redressing wrongs.
In 1791, the Bill of Rights was added to the federal constitution; the First Amendment guaranteed the rights of assembly and petition:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Significantly, the drafters of the federal bill of rights did not parse into separate amendments the rights of free speech and free assembly; nor did they specify that the right of assembly was "for the purpose of" petition. See Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 US 555, 578 n 13, 100 S Ct 2814, 65 L Ed 2d 973 (1980) (discussing deliberations of First Congress concerning assembly rights). Nonetheless, the federal right of assembly was construed in the nineteenth century as the right to gather for the express purpose of consulting to petition the federal government. See, e.g., Slaughter-House Cases, 83 US (16 Wall) 36, 118, 21 L Ed 394 (1872) (Bradley, J., dissenting); see also Jason Mazzone, Freedom's Associations, 77 Wash L Rev 639, 742 (2002) (addressing associations protected by the assembly clause and noting "we have largely overlooked political aspect of associations that lay at the core of their treatment in the early Republic.").
In time, the right of assembly and the right of free expression were conflated in the First Amendment. See, e.g., McDonald v. Smith, 472 US 479, 490, 105 S Ct 2787, 86 L Ed 2d 384 (1985) (Brennan, J., c
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