With Liberty and Justice for All

The Suppression of the Occupy Wall Street Movement Is Unconstitutional.

The reasons are simple the Constitution says that the people have a right to assemble peaceably and petition government for the redress of grievances. Its guaranteed.

By its nature the Constitution is written in broadest possible strokes and does not enumerate or attempt to tell people what form their protests should take. It does not say they can petition the government only Mon-Fri from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Nor does it say that they cannot sleep in tents overnight as part of their protest. It sets no limits other than it be done peaceably. All others forms expression are permitted.

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note
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.

The Constitution is purposefully written in such a way as to allow for the most diverse expressions of human and civil rights and to prevent the government from abridging the rights of the people. That is so that the government cannot say—"its not in the Constitution therefore its not a right".

Another way of looking at it is that the Constitution strictly limits the Governments rights by listing their rights and any rights not listed belong to the people. That is so the government can't make up petty rules that restrict or defeat the peoples rights—such as setting a curfew or limiting such assembles to a certain place.

This is made clear in the 9th amendment that states any right not listed in the Constitution is still a right retained by the people. Government is limited by a list the people are not limited.

Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution. Ratified 12/15/1791.
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people".

The 10th amendment recapitulates the same thing regarding the rights of the states and then restates the rights of the individual over even the state.

Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Commentary: Both of these Amendments were added because, there was an on going— "wrongheaded'—debate at the time which argued for the inclusion of a "Bill Of Rights" which listed all individual rights of the people. The founders saw that as a trap, that would be used to suppress the rights of the people and simply stated that there are no limits on peoples rights, but, set definite rights of government. They concluded and rightly so that the rights of the people are infinite and given to them by their creator—any list would finite and by its inclusion automatically limit the rights of the people.

In the sixties the government circumvented the rights of the people, by putting government paid provocateurs among the demonstrators, who would then cause violence and property damage allowing the police to move in with extreme aggression smashing peoples heads in order to prevent the people from petitioning the government.

That tactic is still being used today and is a clear violation of the intent of the founders. The other tactic was to marginalize the demonstrators with labels—liberals, communists, hippies, drug addicts, elitists, spoiled, pampered, lazy, a mob e.g.

Right wing radicals are little better than "fascists" whose only knowledge of the Constitution is limited to the 2nd Amendment and who would suppress every other right of the people they disagree with. When that occurs there is little difference between the authoritarian governments of Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia and the United States when both suppress the rights of their people unjustly with violence.

The Right always says that they love the Constitution. My question is why do they subvert it every chance they get?

*Redress—redress v. 1. To set right, remedy or rectify. 2. To make amends for. n. 1. Satisfaction for wrong done; reparation. 2. Correction. [