Amendments and clarifications are being added to the special events section of the Code.  A section has been proposed to authorize limited peaceful assembly without the need for all of the requirements for a special event. This requirement was developed after high school students notified the City that they intended to assemble to bring attention to issues related to the Parkland, Florida shooting tragedy on February 14, 2018.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States Congress from enacting legislation that would abridge the right of the people to assemble peaceably.  The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution makes this prohibition applicable to state governments.

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the First Amendment protects the right to conduct a peaceful public assembly.  The right to assemble is not, however, absolute. Government officials cannot simply prohibit a public assembly in their own discretion, but the government can impose restrictions on the time, place, and manner of peaceful assembly, provided that constitutional safeguards are met.  Time, place, and manner restrictions are permissible so long as they “are justified without reference to the content of the regulated speech, . . . are narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and . . . leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.”

Article 1, Section 5 of the Florida Constitution also provides the right to peaceably assemble.

Section 5. Right to assemble.—The people shall have the right peaceably to assemble, to instruct their representatives, and to petition for redress of grievances.