Thoughts on the Shutdown Protests

In my state of Minnesota, as well as many other states, there have been large protests against the state-ordered shutdowns of businesses and limitations on large gatherings that have resulted from the need to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The protesters often stand unsafely close to each other in front of state capital buildings, and some of them even are coming with guns, as seen in the edited picture below this article. Is there a right to protest in this situation? That is the question I will be answering below.

First off, yes, there is always a right to protest. In this country, people have the right to protest under the First Amendment, as long as they do so non-violently. I would even go as far as saying that these people have a right to protest these lockdowns, as much as I disagree with them. When it comes to being liberal, we need to be able to support the legal rights of people to express themselves, no matter how much we condemn what they are saying.

With all of the above having been said, these people do not have a right to protest in the way they are protesting. They should be allowed to go out and hold signs and express their opinions on the lockdowns, but they do not have the right to be going out in public and protesting in close physical proximity to each other. Aside from what they are doing being against the law, it is an issue of public health that affects the general public and not just the people protesting. Even if the protesters do not feel unwell, the problem, as confirmed in the link below, is that people can have the virus without being symptomatic. That unfortunately can spread to other people who will be more symptomatic and possibly even more at risk of death. The right to protest does not mean that person has the right to protest in literally any way they choose, particularly if they are doing it in public and unsafely. There are already some limits placed on First Amendment rights that the First Amendment itself does explicitly permit, such as threats of violence, copyright infringement, etc.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-basics

So in the end, is there a right to protest in this circumstance? Yes, though not in the ways that these people are doing it. If they want to protest, let them, but do not allow them to do it in such large groups that are scrunched so closely together, especially on public property.