Heckling, Name-Taking Fly in Face of Protest, Petition

Commentary
By Gene Policinski
First Amendment Center vice president/executive director

Vocal public protest has a place in American history that began before there was American history.

But as the national debate over health care rages on, the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and the rights of assembly and petition have been tested and challenged in recent days, from Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue to the electronic highway that is the Internet.

A decade and…