Liberty's Refuge

The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly

Inazu John D.

This original and provocative book looks at an important constitutional freedom that today is largely forgotten: the right of assembly. While this right lay at the heart of some of the most important social movements in American history – abolitionism, women's suffrage, the labour and civil rights movements – courts now prefer to speak about the freedoms of association and speech. But the right of "expressive association" undermines protections for groups whose purposes are demonstrable not by speech or expression but through ways of being.

John D. Inazu demonstrates that the forgetting of assembly and the embrace of association loses sight of important dimensions of our constitutional tradition.

About the Author

John D. Inazu is associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Reviews

"Inazu offers the most thorough survey we have of the changing conceptions of freedom of assembly in America" – Andrew Koppelman, author of "A Right to Discriminate? How the Case of Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale Warped the Law of Free Association"

"An original, important, and provocative (in a good way) work... Inazu writes beautifully, he has researched exhaustively, and he keeps the reader's attention through an impressive range of topics and history... The book is a pleasure to read" – Robert K. Vischer, author of "Conscience and the Common Good: Reclaiming the Space Between Person and State"

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