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**APRIL 22, 2021**

Meyerson on TAP

GOP vs. the Right to Assemble (GOP Assemblings Exempted)

The most recent expression of Republican determination to criminalize
people for not being Republicans is their current assault on those
non-Republicans' right to demonstrate. As has been widely reported
,
Republican state legislatures are busy enacting new laws that make
criminally liable anyone participating in a mass action where as few as
one person does more than look sideways at a cop. A bill in Florida also
makes a city's decision to reallocate funds from its police department
to social services subject to state override. A bill in Minnesota would
make any participant in a demonstration the cops declare to be unlawful
ineligible for student loans. And a new law in Oklahoma grants immunity
to any driver whose car runs down demonstrators in a street.

Clearly, the Republican assault on the First Amendment is a part of the
story they're telling their base: that Black Lives Matter and kindred
demonstrations are a threat to "civilization"-by which term the GOP
means "white supremacy."

By extending liability to anyone in a mass demonstration when a bare
handful of demonstrators test or exceed a law's limits, however,
Republicans may appear to be inadvertently and retrospectively expanding
the sphere of culpability for the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Had
their standards been in place that day, the entire crowd that heard
President Trump's harangue could be indicted for felonies, as could,
well, Trump himself. Lest their current spate of legislation be
misconstrued as incriminating pro-Trump demonstrators, there's a
simple solution: Just add an amendment saying that Republican,
pro-Trump, or white racist demonstrators-like the drivers who plow
their cars into peaceful Black Lives Matter advocates-will be granted
immunity from any prosecution. That would clear

**that**up.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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