In his blog Burnt Orange Report, Edward Garris wrote in response to the Occupy Austin protest and similar protests that have been popping up across the country after the Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York City. He asks the question “Why have these protests that are being held on public streets and land being allowed to occur and for the most part are being undisturbed?” He quoted a list of legal doctrine and precedents that lead to a person being able to protest on a street, in a park or most public venues and that guaranteed that there will be a significant degree of First Amendment protection for those protests. Also, the precedents and legal doctrine that has been developed over time has ensured that if there are regulations in place that limit the ability to protest then the regulations are required to be objective, narrow, and definite. The objectivity, narrowness and definitiveness of the regulations will vary by degree in correspondence with the regulations purpose, whether it seeks to prevent all speech or just speech that addresses certain issues. The majority of Mr Garris's blog consists of him quoting the legal doctrine and precedents that have led to the American people's right to assemble and the legal protection that comes along with it. His blog lacks any real depth or original thought and feels like he cut and pasted his way to an article. On the positive side the blog is factually correct and he did correctly cite each of his quotes.
