The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects our fundamental rights to express ourselves, to gather with other people, and to protest our government, among other rights.
The text of the First Amendment is short: “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.”
Since the First Amendment was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, this short paragraph has acted as the basis of our right to free speech. People across the U.S. have sacrificed, litigated, legislated, and organized to ensure that we can all express ourselves, and for over 100 years the ACLU has been central in protecting and expanding the First Amendment’s reach to apply to all people.
D.C. has long been a critical venue for people to express their views, as a place with 700,000 local residents and as the site of the federal government. Here are five things to know about your First Amendment rights in D.C.
1. The government cannot restrict your speech simply because they don’t like what you have to say.
The First Amendment prohibits government agencies from censoring, discriminating against, or applying rules inconsistently to private speech based on its viewpoint. This principle is called “viewpoint neutrality,” and it means that local and federal government agencies can’t allow expression on a given subject from Viewpoint A — but not from Viewpoint B. For example, the government can’t approve a permit for an anti-abortion rally, while blocking a permit for a pro-abortion rally.
Viewpoint neutrality is not limited to political topics. For example, panhandling – or asking passersby for money in public places – is also constitutionally protected under viewpoint neutrality. Governments cannot ban people from asking for money for themselves in public places, while at the same time allowing people to ask for money for something like the Girl Scouts or a charitable organization. The ACLU has long protected people against this form of viewpoint discrimination by challenging anti-panhandling measures around the country.
2. The “government” includes local agencies like D.C. public schools, public transportation, and the Metropolitan Police Department.
The First Amendment protects your right to express yourself and to testify before, petition, and protest the many branches and agencies of the local and federal government. If, for example, you want to picket your local police station to protest police misconduct, or in front of the D.C. Council to protest a law councilmembers passed, the First Amendment protects your right to do so.
The First Amendment also prohibits all local government agencies, including public schools, from discriminating against speech based on its viewpoint. This principle is why on April 24, 2024 ACLU-D.C. filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Arab Student Union at D.C. public high school Jackson-Reed for censoring the students’ pro-Palestinian speech. We sued on behalf of the student group because the Supreme Court has long recognized that public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
3. Most government employees can express their personal political views on their own time.
Both local and federal government employees have a First Amendment right to speak out on important issues on their own time. In general, a federal employee’s speech is protected if that person is speaking as a private person (not a spokesperson for their job), if it is about a matter of public concern, and if their speech does not interfere with their job. While not at work and while not using their official authority, most government employees are allowed to contribute money to partisan groups and candidates; participate in political rallies and meetings and in partisan groups; and express opinions about political issues, candidates, and groups.
Many federal and DC government employees are also subject to the Hatch Act, which further restricts their free speech rights. The lines between what is and is not allowed can get complicated, so for more information, check out our guide on First Amendment rights for federal employees.
4. Your free speech rights are strongest in places like public streets, sidewalks, and parks.
The government can impose the fewest restrictions on your speech if you are expressing your views in what is called a “traditional public forum.” These are public places like streets, sidewalks, and parks, where people have commonly gathered to discuss and express their views.
The Supreme Court has recognized that “it is no accident that public streets and sidewalks have developed as venues for the exchange of ideas.” The justices have reasoned that streets and sidewalks are important places where people encounter ideas and viewpoints that they are not actively seeking out. For this reason, these public places play an important role in expressing and hearing new ideas in a democracy.
The ACLU has long advocated for the protection of public places, like streets and sidewalks, where free expression and protest can take place.
5. Police may not break up a lawful protest unless there is a clear and present danger or immediate threat to public safety.
Police can only break up an otherwise-lawful protest as a last resort, by issuing what is known as a “dispersal order.” They can issue this order if there is a clear and present danger, if the protest interferes with traffic, or if there is an immediate threat to public safety.
In D.C., protesters often encounter both federal and local law enforcement agencies. In 2022, Black Lives Matter DC won important changes when the federal government partially settled a lawsuit ACLU-D.C. filed on behalf of racial justice demonstrators who were attacked by police in 2020. In the partial settlement, the Biden Administration updated dispersal order rules for the United States Park Police and Secret Service and made clear that police cannot revoke protest permits unless there is a clear and present danger to public safety.
For more information on police and protests generally, check out the ACLU’s Know Your Rights guide for protesters. For more information on police and protests in D.C., check out our Know Your Rights guide for demonstrations in D.C.
Although the First Amendment offers powerful free speech protections, it does have its limits. Here are three major ways that the First Amendment does not protect your speech.
1. The First Amendment protects you from government censorship, but not from censorship by private organizations or individuals.
The First Amendment, like the U.S. Constitution generally, affords rights that people can use to challenge the government. Local and federal governments have many agencies, all of which must abide by the First Amendment. But our free speech and association rights do not generally apply to private organizations or people, even if those organizations or people receive funding from the government. (Simply receiving money from the government does not make an organization a part of the government. The government would have to dictate the organization’s actions for those actions to be legally subject to the First Amendment.)
For example, students at private schools do not generally have the same rights to freedom of speech as students at public schools, even if the private school receives government funding. Students’ free speech rights at private schools are usually established by the school’s rules, policies, and procedures.
For more information about student rights generally, check out the ACLU’s guide to student rights. For information about the expanded rights of D.C. public school students, check out the D.C. Student Bill of Rights.
2. The First Amendment protects protest, but not civil disobedience.
The First Amendment covers all forms of communication and symbolic actions that express a viewpoint, including art, clothing, and protests. But the First Amendment does not protect acts of civil disobedience in which people break the law. Civil disobedience involves breaking or refusing to follow certain laws as a way to criticize the government or object to something the government does. Politically principled illegal activities can sometimes lead to arrest and conviction and are not covered by the First Amendment. For example, sitting in a street may be considered an expression of a political opinion, but illegally blocking traffic may lead to arrest and conviction.
3. The First Amendment protects your right to express yourself, but allows the government to restrict when, where, and how you do it.
Even in “traditional public forums,” the local and federal government can place reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of your expression in order to minimize disruption. For example, the government is allowed to say that a demonstration cannot happen during rush hour, outside the entrance of an emergency room, or with the use of a loudspeaker at high volumes. These restrictions, though, must be applied in a content- and viewpoint- neutral way, so the government cannot allow certain actions by one group, but not allow the same actions by another group with a different viewpoint or message.
Even with these limitations, the First Amendment is a powerful tool that gives us the right to criticize our government and to advocate for change. Many consider the right to free speech and association to be the foundation that all of our other rights, including the right to vote, are built upon.
Learn more about your First Amendment rights in D.C. by visiting our Know Your Rights page. And if you believe that your First Amendment rights have been violated in the District of Columbia, contact us. It’s up to all of us to protect this foundational right of our democracy – the right to express ourselves, to challenge unjust government actions, and to build a better way forward.
