SECTION 4

JUSTIFICATION OF ADBRIDGMENT OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE PRESS.

1.)Clear and present danger rule- The adbridgment of the liberty, however, can be justified only where
there exists substantial danger that the speech will likely lead to an evil the government has a right to
prevent. This is known as "The clear and present danger rule".

2.) Application of rule- How substantial the danger must be and immediate the evil results, depends
upon the nature of the interest threatened.

(A) For example, persons distributing handbills announcing a public meeting may not be denied the
right to do so merely because there is a clear and a present danger that the streets become cluttered.
A town or a city has a right to keep its street clean, but the interest in clean streets does not justify
suppression of speech.

(B) On the other hand, a conspiratorial group may be punished for publicly advocating violent
overthrow of the government, even though the likelihood of such an overthrow is remote. The
interest in persevering our government against violent overthrow is more substantial than that in
keeping streets clean. The former justifies restrictions on speech even when the danger is remote,
whereas the latter does not justify restriction even when the danger is immediate. But where the
seditious words do not pose a clear and present danger To the state as when they were uttered
before a group of old men and women, the utterances may not be punishable.

MEANING OF RIGHT OF ASSEMBLY AND RIGHT OF PETITION

1.)The right of assembly means the right on the part of citizens to meet peaceably for consultation in
respect to public affairs.

2.)The right of petition means the right of any person or group of persons to apply without fear of
penalty, to the appropriate branch or office of the government for redress of grievances.

RELATIONSHIP WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE PRESS

(1) Complement of right of free speech The right to assemble and the right to petition are necessary
consequences of our republican institution and the complement of of the right to speech. All these
rights while not identical, are cognate and inseparable.

(2) Application of clear and present danger rule As in the case of freedom of speech and of the press,
the rights of assembly and petition include at the very least, immunity from previous restraint and
against any subsequent punishment for their exercise except that it may be restrained or interfered
with when there is a clear and present danger of a substantive evil that the state or government has a
right to prevent under it's police power.