Opinion ID: 692064
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Damage Claim on Right to Peaceable Assembly and Freedom of Association:

Text: 9 Plaintiffs allege that, in removing them from the property, defendants violated plaintiffs' rights to peaceable assembly and freedom of association guaranteed in the First Amendment. To show that these rights were clearly established, plaintiffs rely mainly upon the Supreme Court's decisions in Coates v. City of Cincinnati, 402 U.S. 611, 91 S.Ct. 1686, 29 L.Ed.2d 214 (1971), and Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 104 S.Ct. 3244, 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984). In Roberts, the Court recognized as implicit in the right to engage in activities protected by the First Amendment a corresponding right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends. Id. at 622, 104 S.Ct. at 3252. While those cases recognized a general First Amendment right to peaceable assembly and freedom of association, they did not clearly establish that people have a right to pursue such ends on the property of another without the owner's permission. 10 To overcome the qualified immunity defense, citing precedent which establishes a general right will not do. Because those cases plaintiffs cite do not dictate and compel the conclusion that defendants' acts violated plaintiffs' rights to peaceable assembly and freedom of association, and because plaintiffs have failed to cite other authority which dictates that conclusion, plaintiffs have failed to show defendants violated clearly established federal law of which a reasonable officer would have known. The district court, therefore, properly held defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiffs' First Amendment claims. 3