Forum on Occupy Wall Street

Abstract

This forum on the Occupy Wall Street movement approaches the 2011 phenomenon from several angles. In the first essay, “The Occupy Movement and the First Amendment: A Quandary,” Donald Fishman provides a discussion of the theoretical and legal background of the “speech plus conduct” issue. The Occupy Wall Street Movement and its affiliated protests around the country have raised important First Amendment issues about the novelty of using encampments to express core political speech. Neither the extensive protests of the civil rights movement nor the anti-Vietnam War activities during the 1960s utilized the strategy of a continuing, semi-permanent encampment on public space. Beginning in 2011, tensions arose between those using an encampment for a lengthy period of time and the government’s claims of substantial dangers to public safety and health. This essay examines the case law set forth under symbolic speech, and the unique issues surrounding the use of encampments as political agitation under First Amendment theory. In the second essay, “Dreams of Sleeping in Public Spaces: The Occupy Wall Street Movement and Sleep as Symbolic Expression,” Juliet Dee examines the litigation resulting from protesters suing city administrations and police departments for violating their First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of assembly. Although judges ruled in favor of municipal administrations or police departments in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Chicago, protesters in Los Angeles and Oakland, California reached out-of-court settlements with city governments. The real legacy of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, however, is that it “pushed the envelope” regarding the right to assemble not only during the day, but also at night, as in some cities in which protesters obtained permits to pitch tents and stay overnight as well. In the third essay, “The Unsquared Square or Protest and Contemporary Publics,” Susan Drucker and Gary Gumpert begin with a consideration of the effect of the Arab Spring on the Occupy Wall Street Movement. They then examine the reciprocal relationship between the use of public spaces such as the proverbial village squares and “mediated spaces” when we use smart phones and streaming video in place of face-to-face contact, as when members of the Occupy movement used their cell phone cameras to tweet images of how the police treated