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117-531: With the participation of thousands of students, the Free Speech Movement was the first mass act of civil disobedience on an American college campus in the 1960s. Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom . The Free Speech Movement was influenced by the New Left , and

234-458: A mass arrest . Shortly after 2 a.m. on December 4, 1964, police cordoned off the building, and at 3:30 a.m. began the arrest. Close to 800 students were arrested, most of whom were transported about 25 miles by bus to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin . They were released on their own recognizance after a few hours. About a month later, the university brought charges against the students who organized

351-551: A mimeographed neighborhood newspaper, the Weekly Herald , and used the proceeds to buy a war bond . The young Meese also rode a bicycle on a paper route and worked in a drugstore. At Oakland High School , Meese was involved in the Junior State of America and led his high school debate team to statewide championships. He was valedictorian of Oakland High School's class of 1949. Two weeks prior to graduation, Meese

468-534: A 2014 City Journal article that the group viewed the United States government to be racist and imperialist, and that the main intent after lifting Berkeley's loyalty oath was to build on the legacy of C. Wright Mills . On September 14, 1964, Dean Katherine Towle announced that existing University regulations prohibiting advocacy of political causes or candidates, outside political speakers, recruitment of members, and fundraising by student organizations at

585-624: A case management software program, like PROMIS (Prosecutor's Management Information System), developed by Inslaw . Meese prosecuted felony cases while maintaining a private practice on nights and weekends, where he focused on civil law. During this service, he first drew the attention of Republican State Senator Donald L. Grunsky , who would later recommend him to governor-elect Ronald Reagan . In 1959, he married his high school sweetheart Ursula Herrick, daughter of Oakland's postmaster. Meese joined Ronald Reagan 's gubernatorial staff in 1967 as legal affairs secretary, serving in that role for

702-479: A civil disobedient who pleads guilty is essentially stating, "Yes, I committed the act of which you accuse me. I don't deny it; in fact, I am proud of it. I feel I did the right thing by violating this particular law; I am guilty as charged", but that pleading not guilty sends a message of, "Guilt implies wrong-doing. I feel I have done no wrong. I may have violated some specific laws, but I am guilty of doing no wrong. I, therefore, plead not guilty." A plea of no contest

819-500: A commission in the U.S. Army as a Second Lieutenant . He spent 24 months at Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma . Meese worked in logistics, conducting installation and operations of the 240 mm howitzer M1 . Meese completed active duty in 1956 and continued in the U.S. Army Reserve , specializing in military intelligence. Meese retired from the Army Reserve as a colonel in 1984. Meese returned to California, where he obtained

936-474: A desired social goal (such as the provision of medication to the sick) while openly breaking the law. Julia Butterfly Hill lived in Luna , a 180-foot (55 m)-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days, preventing its felling. In cases where the criminalized behaviour is pure speech , civil disobedience can consist simply of engaging in the forbidden speech. An example is WBAI 's broadcasting of

1053-428: A law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law in 1958 and was a state Moot Court champion. He accepted a position with the district attorney's office of Alameda County, California as a law clerk . While there, he worked under district attorney J. Frank Coakley and future district attorney Delwen Lowell Jensen . Jensen received a LEAA grant to develop DALITE (District Attorney's Automated Legal Information System),

1170-408: A law viewed as illegitimate and then taking the consequences of the law. (For example, they might refuse to swear allegiance to the king, and, as a consequence, accept the prison sentence legally and normally meted out to people who refused to take this oath.) This was focused on the illegitimacy of laws claimed to be "divine" in origin, both the "divine rights of kings" and "divine rights of man", and

1287-450: A major part of the movement. The police car remained there for 32 hours, all while Weinberg was inside it. At one point, there may have been 3,000 students around the car. The car was used as a speaker's podium and a continuous public discussion was held, which continued until the charges against Weinberg were dropped. On December 2, between 1,500 and 4,000 students went into Sproul Hall as a last resort in order to re-open negotiations with

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1404-463: A maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. Some civil disobedients feel it is incumbent upon them to accept punishment because of their belief in the validity of the social contract , which is held to bind all to obey the laws that a government meeting certain standards of legitimacy has established, or else suffer

1521-496: A member of both his Cabinet and the National Security Council from 1981 to 1985. On Monday, September 14, 1981, Meese chaired the first White House discussion of what would become Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the missile defense program. Meese served as a liaison to the conservative evangelical community, arranging for meetings between social conservative leaders and the president. Meese

1638-416: A non-violent one, the choice of means will almost never be pure, and will involve such complexities that the simple distinction between violence and non-violence does not suffice as a guide ... the very acts with which we seek to do good cannot escape the imperfections of the world we are trying to change. Zinn rejects any "easy and righteous dismissal of violence", noting that Thoreau, the popularizer of

1755-544: A peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally, though sometimes violence has been known to occur. Often there is an expectation to be attacked or even beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack. Civil disobedience is usually defined as pertaining to a citizen's relation to the state and its laws, as distinguished from a constitutional impasse , in which two public agencies, especially two equally sovereign branches of government , conflict. For instance, if

1872-400: A person can act unjustly. When the government knocks on the door, it is a person in the form of a postman or tax collector whose hand hits the wood. Before Thoreau's imprisonment, when a confused taxman had wondered aloud about how to handle his refusal to pay, Thoreau had advised, "Resign". If a man chose to be an agent of injustice, then Thoreau insisted on confronting him with the fact that he

1989-583: A range of legal measures and public practices that to them promoted ethnic, religious, and racial discrimination . Pro Public and typically peaceful resistance to political power remained an integral tactic in modern American minority rights politics. In Ireland starting from 1879 the Irish " Land War " intensified when Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell , in a speech in Ennis proposed that when dealing with tenants who take farms where another tenant

2106-589: A report by Archibald Cox to the Senate , which alleged that Meese had a "lack of ethical sensitivity" and "blindness to abuse of position". Meese was finally confirmed by a vote of 63–31, with more opposition than any other Attorney General nominee had received since the 1920s. He began serving as Attorney General in February 1985. In 1985, Meese received Government Executive magazine's annual award for excellence in management for his service in this role. In

2223-520: A special Channukah service took place in the main lobby. On the steps of Sproul Hall, Mario Savio gave a famous speech: ... But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be — have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean — Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We're human beings! ...  There's

2340-474: A system to function. In this way, they might be considered coercive; coercive disobedience has the effect of exposing the enforcement of laws and policies, and it has even operated as an aesthetic strategy in contemporary art practice. Brownlee notes that "although civil disobedients are constrained in their use of coercion by their conscientious aim to engage in moral dialogue, nevertheless they may find it necessary to employ limited coercion to get their issue onto

2457-655: A time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you so sick at heart — that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all. At midnight, Alameda County deputy district attorney Edwin Meese III telephoned Governor Edmund Brown Sr. , asking for authority to proceed with

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2574-467: A way that often mirrored Reagan's own speaking style and mannerisms, leading Reagan biographer Lou Cannon to describe him as "Reagan's geographer". After being named Reagan's chief of staff, Meese convinced his predecessor's deputy, Mike Deaver , to stay on with him, beginning a partnership that would last more than two decades. For his role in Reagan's office, Meese earned reluctant praise from across

2691-401: A year, until 1968. In 1969, he became Governor Reagan's executive assistant and chief of staff , and served in that capacity until 1974. Despite his later well-known reputation of being fond of Reagan, Meese was initially reluctant to accept the appointment. "I was not particularly interested", he later said of the position. Meese was known for his ability to explain complex ideas to Reagan in

2808-439: Is a whole class of acts, undertaken in the name of civil disobedience, which, even if they were widely practiced, would in themselves constitute hardly more than a nuisance (e.g. trespassing at a nuclear-missile installation) ... Such acts are often just a harassment and, at least to the bystander, somewhat inane ... The remoteness of the connection between the disobedient act and the objectionable law lays such acts open to

2925-458: Is afraid of how her conscience will smite her if she does not do this. Conrad Grebel and Anabaptists advocated civil disobedience to oppression. Étienne de La Boétie 's thought developed in his work Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un (1552) was also taken up by many movements of civil disobedience, which drew from the concept of rebellion to voluntary servitude the foundation of its instrument of struggle. Étienne de La Boétie

3042-432: Is distinct from other kinds of hacktivism in that the perpetrator openly reveals his identity. Virtual actions rarely succeed in completely shutting down their targets, but they often generate media attention. Dilemma actions are designed to create a "response dilemma" for public authorities "by forcing them to either concede some public space to protesters or make themselves look absurd or heavy-handed by acting against

3159-466: Is done by remaining in jail, or by evading it. To accept jail penitently as an accession to "the rules" is to switch suddenly to a spirit of subservience, to demean the seriousness of the protest ... In particular, the neo-conservative insistence on a guilty plea should be eliminated. Sometimes the prosecution proposes a plea bargain to civil disobedients, as in the case of the Camden 28 , in which

3276-503: Is in Sophocles ' play Antigone , in which Antigone , one of the daughters of former King of Thebes , Oedipus , defies Creon , the current King of Thebes, who is trying to stop her from giving her brother Polynices a proper burial. She gives a stirring speech in which she tells him that she must obey her conscience rather than human law. She is not at all afraid of the death he threatens her with (and eventually carries out), but she

3393-432: Is more effective than open disobedience. This assumes that common morality does not have a prohibition on deceit in such situations. The Fully Informed Jury Association 's publication "A Primer for Prospective Jurors" notes, "Think of the dilemma faced by German citizens when Hitler 's secret police demanded to know if they were hiding a Jew in their house." By this definition, civil disobedience could be traced back to

3510-399: Is more effective, it is, other things being equal, more justified than less effective, nonviolent disobedience." In his best-selling Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order , Howard Zinn takes a similar position; Zinn states that while the goals of civil disobedience are generally nonviolent, in the inevitable tension accompanying the transition from a violent world to

3627-524: Is more of an active attempt to overthrow a government (or to change cultural traditions, social customs or religious beliefs). Revolution does not have to be political, i.e. "cultural revolution", it simply implies sweeping and widespread change to a section of the social fabric. Gandhi's acts have been described as revolutionary civil disobedience. It has been claimed that the Hungarians under Ferenc Deák directed revolutionary civil disobedience against

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3744-500: Is much more destructive; therefore, the defects justifying rebellion must be much more serious than those justifying disobedience, and if one cannot justify civil rebellion, then one cannot justify a civil disobedient's use of force and violence and refusal to submit to arrest. Civil disobedients' refraining from violence is also said to help preserve society's tolerance of civil disobedience. The philosopher H. J. McCloskey argues that "if violent, intimidatory, coercive disobedience

3861-424: Is not necessarily right. In his 1971 book, A Theory of Justice , John Rawls described civil disobedience as "a public, non-violent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with the aim of bringing about change in the law or policies of the government". Ronald Dworkin held that there are three types of civil disobedience: Some theories of civil disobedience hold that civil disobedience

3978-454: Is only justified against governmental entities. Brownlee argues that disobedience in opposition to the decisions of non-governmental agencies such as trade unions , banks, and private universities can be justified if it reflects "a larger challenge to the legal system that permits those decisions to be taken". The same principle, she argues, applies to breaches of law in protest against international organizations and foreign governments. It

4095-415: Is rarely justifiable in court, King regarded civil disobedience to be a display and practice of reverence for law: "Any man who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community on the injustice of the law is at that moment expressing the very highest respect for the law." An early depiction of civil disobedience

4212-473: Is sometimes equated with peaceful protests or nonviolent resistance . Henry David Thoreau 's essay Resistance to Civil Government , published posthumously as Civil Disobedience , popularized the term in the US, although the concept itself has been practiced longer before. Various forms of civil disobedience have been used by prominent activists such as American women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony in

4329-614: Is sometimes regarded as a compromise between the two. One defendant accused of illegally protesting nuclear power , when asked to enter his plea, stated, "I plead for the beauty that surrounds us"; this is known as a "creative plea", and will usually be interpreted as a plea of not guilty. When the Committee for Non-Violent Action sponsored a protest in August 1957, at the Camp Mercury nuclear test site near Las Vegas, Nevada, 13 of

4446-543: Is usually recognized that lawbreaking, if it is not done publicly, at least must be publicly announced to constitute civil disobedience. But Stephen Eilmann argues that if it is necessary to disobey rules that conflict with morality, we might ask why disobedience should take the form of public civil disobedience rather than simply covert lawbreaking. If a lawyer wishes to help a client overcome legal obstacles to securing their natural rights , he might, for instance, find that assisting in fabricating evidence or committing perjury

4563-434: Is whether to plead guilty . There is much debate on this point, as some believe that it is a civil disobedient's duty to submit to the punishment prescribed by law, while others believe that defending oneself in court will increase the possibility of changing the unjust law. It has also been argued that either choice is compatible with the spirit of civil disobedience. ACT UP 's Civil Disobedience Training handbook states that

4680-605: Is wrong. The resistance to authority in South Africa was well advanced before I got the essay ... When I saw the title of Thoreau's great essay, I began to use his phrase to explain our struggle to the English readers. But I found that even "Civil Disobedience" failed to convey the full meaning of the struggle. I therefore adopted the phrase "Civil Resistance." In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming

4797-469: The 1969 election . "Ed had an uncanny ability to look down the road," said Pen James, Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel . Meese's presidential transition team employed more than 1,000 individuals, with 311 being paid in federal funds, 331 working for a "token" $ 1, and the rest serving as volunteers. When accounting for inflation, the Reagan transition team spent slightly less money than

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4914-621: The Austrian government . Thoreau also wrote of civil disobedience accomplishing "peaceable revolution". Howard Zinn, Harvey Wheeler , and others have identified the right espoused in the US Declaration of Independence to "alter or abolish" an unjust government to be a principle of civil disobedience. The earliest recorded incidents of collective civil disobedience took place during the Roman Empire . Unarmed Jews gathered in

5031-687: The Baltic countries from the Soviet Union , and more recently with the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013–2014 Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, the 2016–2017 Candlelight Revolution in South Korea, and the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests , among many other various movements worldwide. Henry David Thoreau 's 1849 essay "Resistance to Civil Government"

5148-679: The Book of Exodus , where Shiphrah and Puah refused a direct order of Pharaoh but misrepresented how they did it. (Exodus 1: 15–19) There have been debates as to whether civil disobedience must necessarily be non-violent. Black's Law Dictionary includes nonviolence in its definition of civil disobedience. Christian Bay's encyclopedia article states that civil disobedience requires "carefully chosen and legitimate means", but holds that they do not have to be non-violent. It has been argued that, while both civil disobedience and civil rebellion are justified by appeal to constitutional defects , rebellion

5265-788: The British Empire ), in Czechoslovakia 's Velvet Revolution , in early stages of the Bangladeshi independence movement against Pakistani colonialism and in East Germany to oust their Stalinist government. In South Africa during the leftist campaign against the far-right Apartheid regime, in the American civil rights movement against Jim Crow laws , in the Singing Revolution to bring independence to

5382-531: The Civil Rights Movement . According to existing rules at the time, fundraising for political parties was limited exclusively to the Democratic and Republican school clubs. There was also a mandatory " loyalty oath " required of faculty, which had led to dismissals and ongoing controversy over academic freedom. Sol Stern , a former radical who took part in the Free Speech Movement, stated in

5499-632: The House Committee on Un-American Activities meeting in San Francisco in 1960 had included an iconic scene as protesters were literally washed down the steps inside the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall with fire hoses. The anti-Communist film Operation Abolition depicted this scene and became an organizing tool for the protesters. The 20th anniversary reunion of the FSM was held during

5616-545: The Iowa caucuses, Meese joined the 1980 Reagan presidential campaign full-time as chief of staff in charge of day-to-day campaign operations and senior issues adviser. After the 1980 election , Meese headed Reagan's transition effort . At the advice of Meese, Reagan secretly allowed his campaign to establish a transition office to avoid difficulties similar to those faced by the Nixon administration in its transition following

5733-478: The Mexican–American War . He writes, If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of

5850-521: The Reagan presidential transition team (1980–81), and the Reagan administration (1981–1985). Following the 1984 presidential election , Reagan considered him for the White House Chief of Staff position, but James Baker was chosen instead. Meese was eventually appointed and confirmed as the 75th United States Attorney General (1985–1988), a position he held until resigning in 1988 amidst

5967-770: The San Francisco Bay Area Bay Area Rapid Transit . He left Rohr to enter private law practice in San Diego County, California . After receiving a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation , Meese developed what he called "a plan for a law school center for criminal justice policy and management". The plan was accepted by the University of San Diego , a private Catholic school. From the fall of 1977 to January 1981, Meese served as professor of law at

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6084-620: The Speaker of the House of Representatives , compared Meese to Ebenezer Scrooge . Shortly after, Meese offered a tongue-in-cheek defense of Scrooge, saying that he "had his faults, but he wasn't unfair to anyone" and that he suffered from "a bad press". Reagan nominated Meese to be William French Smith 's successor as U.S. Attorney General on January 23, 1984. For more than a year, Democrats repeatedly charged Meese with unethical conduct to bar his confirmation as attorney general, including

6201-677: The Wedtech scandal . Meese currently serves as a member of the board of trustees for The Heritage Foundation , a Washington, D.C. –based think tank . He was also a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University . He is a member of the national advisory board of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and a member of the board of directors of the Federalist Society . He has served on

6318-450: The head of government of a country were to refuse to enforce a decision of that country's highest court, it would not be civil disobedience, since the head of government would act in his or her capacity as public official rather than private citizen. This definition is disputed by Thoreau's political philosophy on the conscience vs. the collective. The person is the final judge of right and wrong. More than this, since only people act, only

6435-624: The sit-in , resulting in an even larger student protest that all but shut down the university. After much disturbance, the University officials slowly backed down. By January 3, 1965, the new acting chancellor, Martin Meyerson (who had replaced the previous resigned Edward Strong ), established provisional rules for political activity on the Berkeley campus. He designated the Sproul Hall steps an open discussion area during certain hours of

6552-470: The Carter transition team, $ 1.75 million versus $ 1.78 million. On November 17, 1980, Meese and James Baker held a meeting to divide their list of White House responsibilities, since both saw the potential for future conflict because of their positions being somewhat similar in nature. The one-page memorandum listed Meese's responsibilities as: Meese became Counselor to the President, who appointed him as

6669-578: The FSM was followed by the Vietnam Day Committee , a major starting point for the anti-Vietnam war movement. For the first time, disobedience tactics of the Civil Rights Movement were brought by the Free Speech Movement to a college campus in the 1960s. Those approaches gave the students exceptional leverage to make demands of the university administrators, and build the foundation for future protests, such as those against

6786-573: The FSM, and current free speech issues. In April 2001, UC's Bancroft Library held a symposium celebrating the opening of the Free Speech Movement Digital Archive. Although not a formal FSM reunion, many FSM leaders were on the panels and other participants were in the audience. The 40th anniversary reunion, the first after Savio's death in 1996, was held in October 2004. It featured columnist Molly Ivins giving

6903-587: The People's Park protest, during which law enforcement officers killed one student, on his way to class, who was not a protester and injured hundreds of others, including bystanders. Meese advised Reagan to declare a state of emergency in Berkeley, contrary to the recommendation of the Berkeley City Council. That resulted in a two-week occupation of People's Park by National Guard troops. The first governor to turn to Meese for advice on riot control

7020-513: The Vietnam War. The Free Speech Movement had long-lasting effects at the Berkeley campus and was a pivotal moment for the civil liberties movement in the 1960s. It was seen as the beginning of the famous student activism that existed on the campus in the 1960s, and continues to a lesser degree today. There was a substantial voter backlash against the individuals involved in the Free Speech Movement. Ronald Reagan won an unexpected victory in

7137-433: The activist community, that a suspect's talking to criminal investigators can serve no useful purpose and may be harmful. Some civil disobedients are compelled to respond to investigators' questions, sometimes by a misunderstanding of the legal ramifications or a fear of seeming rude. Also, some civil disobedients seek to use the arrest as an opportunity to make an impression on the officers. Thoreau wrote, My civil neighbor,

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7254-425: The administration on the subject of restrictions on political speech and action on campus. Among other grievances was the fact that four of their leaders were being singled out for punishment. The demonstration was orderly; students studied, watched movies, and sang folk songs. Joan Baez was there to lead in the singing, as well as lend moral support. "Freedom classes" were held by teaching assistants on one floor, and

7371-519: The aisle. Bob Moretti , a Democrat and former Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, said, "Were I in the governor's seat, I would want someone like [Ed Meese] on my side." As Reagan's chief of staff, Meese was instrumental in the decision to crack down on student protesters at People's Park in Berkeley, California , on May 15, 1969. Meese was widely criticized for escalating the official response to

7488-454: The allegations "are purely political." When asked about soup kitchens, he said that "some people are going to soup kitchens voluntarily.... I know we've had considerable information that people go to soup kitchens because the food is free and that that's easier than paying for it." Democratic leaders and social welfare activists called his comments "disgraceful," "an outrage," "unkind," "mean-spirited," and "absolutely ridiculous". Tip O'Neill ,

7605-580: The annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, followed later in the week by the customary rally in Sproul Plaza and panels on civil liberties issues. A Sunday meeting was a more private event, primarily a gathering for the veterans of the movement, in remembrance of Savio and of a close FSM ally, professor Reginald Zelnik, who had died in an accident in May. Today, Sproul Hall and the surrounding Sproul Plaza are active locations for protests and marches, as well as

7722-470: The bit " Filthy Words " from a George Carlin comedy album, which eventually led to the 1978 Supreme Court case of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation . Threatening government officials is a way to express defiance toward the government and unwillingness to stand for its policies. For example, a supporter of some tax deniers in New Hampshire , Edward and Elaine Brown , was arrested for allegedly telling

7839-655: The board of Cornerstone closed-end funds . Meese was born on December 2, 1931, in Oakland, California , the eldest of four sons born to Leone (née Feldman) and Edwin Meese, Jr. He was raised in a practicing Lutheran family, of German descent. His father was an Oakland city government official, president of the Zion Lutheran Church, and served 24 years in the non-partisan office of Treasurer of Alameda County . At age 10, Meese published along with his brothers

7956-625: The board. He's one of the men who has known [the President] so long and so well he's become almost an alter ego of Ronald Reagan." Meese created a storm of controversy in December 1983 after his responses to questions about hunger in America. In response to a question about balancing spending cuts against the need to feed hungry children, he said that he had seen no "authoritative" evidence that children in America were going hungry and that some of

8073-489: The campaign for a free India. Thoreau's 1849 essay Civil Disobedience , originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government", has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. The driving idea behind the essay is that citizens are morally responsible for their support of aggressors, even when such support is required by law. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having refused to pay taxes as an act of protest against slavery and against

8190-445: The cause is more important than my freedom" and not incorrectly believe themselves to have legal immunity or feel a sense of entitlement to break laws without being subject to the ordinary legal punishments for breaking those laws. Some disciplines of civil disobedience hold that the protester must submit to arrest and cooperate with the authorities. Others advocate falling limp or resisting arrest , especially when it will hinder

8307-476: The charge of ineffectiveness and absurdity. Bedau also notes, though, that the very harmlessness of such entirely symbolic illegal protests toward public policy goals may serve a propaganda purpose. Some civil disobedients, such as the proprietors of illegal medical cannabis dispensaries and Voice in the Wilderness, which brought medicine to Iraq without the permission of the US government, directly achieve

8424-440: The company Wedtech. (E. Robert Wallach worked as a lobbyist for the company and sought help from Meese on Wedtech contract matters.) McKay never prosecuted or sought indictment of Meese, but in his official report, which is still confidential, he was highly critical of Meese's ethics and urged further investigation of Meese's role in that scandal and others such as Meese's efforts to help Bechtel Corporation . Meese described it as

8541-462: The day and permitted information tables. This applied to the entire student political spectrum, not just the liberal elements that drove the Free Speech Movement. Most outsiders, however, identified the Free Speech Movement as a movement of the Left. Students and others opposed to U.S. foreign policy did indeed increase their visibility on campus following the FSM's initial victory. In the spring of 1965,

8658-671: The defendants were offered an opportunity to plead guilty to one misdemeanour count and receive no jail time. In some mass arrest situations, the activists decide to use solidarity tactics to secure the same plea bargain for everyone. Edwin Meese Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in Ronald Reagan 's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974),

8775-466: The fall of 1966 and was elected Governor . He then directed the UC Board of Regents to dismiss UC President Clark Kerr because of the perception that he had been too soft on the protesters. The FBI kept secret files on Kerr and Savio, and subjected their lives and careers to interference under COINTELPRO . Reagan had gained political traction by campaigning on a platform that promised to "clean up

8892-443: The first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent protest. A version was taken up by the author Henry David Thoreau in his essay Civil Disobedience , and later by Gandhi in his doctrine of Satyagraha . Gandhi's Satyagraha was partially influenced and inspired by Shelley's nonviolence in protest and political action. In particular, it is known that Gandhi often quoted Shelley's Mask of Anarchy to vast audiences during

9009-478: The first week of October, 1984, to considerable media attention. A rally in Sproul Plaza featured FSM veterans Mario Savio, who ended a long self-imposed silence, Jack Weinberg, and Jackie Goldberg. The week continued with a series of panels open to the public on the movement and its impact. The 30th anniversary reunion, held during the first weekend of December 1994, was also a public event, with another Sproul Plaza rally featuring Savio, Weinberg, Goldberg, panels on

9126-459: The formulation of a single all-encompassing definition of the term is extremely difficult, if not impossible. In reviewing the voluminous literature on the subject, the student of civil disobedience rapidly finds himself surrounded by a maze of semantical problems and grammatical niceties. Like Alice in Wonderland , he often finds that specific terminology has no more (or no less) meaning than

9243-419: The individual orator intends it to have. He encourages a distinction between lawful protest demonstration, nonviolent civil disobedience, and violent civil disobedience. In a letter to P. K. Rao, dated 10 September 1935, Gandhi disputes that his idea of civil disobedience was derived from the writings of Thoreau: The statement that I had derived my idea of Civil Disobedience from the writings of Thoreau

9360-461: The intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph Avenues would be "strictly enforced." On October 1, 1964, former graduate student Jack Weinberg was sitting at the CORE table. He refused to show his identification to the campus police and was arrested. There was a spontaneous movement of students to surround the police car in which he was to be transported. This was a form of civil disobedience that became

9477-552: The late 19th century, Egyptian nationalist Saad Zaghloul during the 1910s, and Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi in 1920s British India as part of his leadership of the Indian independence movement . Martin Luther King Jr. 's and James Bevel 's peaceful nonviolent protests during the civil rights movement in the 1960s United States sometimes contained important aspects of civil disobedience. Although civil disobedience

9594-601: The late-1980s, Meese was investigated for his role in covering up the Iran-Contra affair to limit damage to Reagan. Although evidence supporting this accusation came to light, Meese was ultimately not charged with any obstruction. In February 1987, James C. McKay was named independent counsel in the Wedtech case . The investigation centered on actions Meese took that benefited him and his longtime friend and former lawyer, E. Robert Wallach. McKay looked into Meese's involvement, while Attorney General, in negotiations involving

9711-464: The legitimacy of laws acknowledged to be made by human beings. Following the Peterloo massacre of 1819, the poet Percy Shelley wrote the political poem The Mask of Anarchy later that year, that begins with the images of what he thought to be the unjust forms of authority of his time—and then imagines the stirrings of a new form of social action . According to Ashton Nichols , it is perhaps

9828-552: The local city councillors to "Wise up or die." More generally, protesters of particular victimless crimes often see fit to openly commit that crime. Laws against public nudity , for instance, have been protested by going naked in public , and laws against cannabis consumption have been protested by openly possessing it and using it at cannabis rallies. Some forms of civil disobedience, such as illegal boycotts , refusals to pay taxes , draft dodging , distributed denial-of-service attacks , and sit-ins , make it more difficult for

9945-512: The mess in Berkeley". In the minds of those involved in the backlash, a wide variety of protests, concerned citizens, and activists were lumped together. Furthermore, television news and documentary filmmaking had made it possible to photograph and broadcast moving images of protest activity. Much of this media is available today as part of the permanent collection of the Bancroft Library at Berkeley, including iconic photographs of

10062-704: The mid-1980s, there was a federal investigation into Meese's connections and alleged financial improprieties related to his efforts to help the Bechtel Corporation build a pipeline in Iraq . The pipeline was to extend from Iraq to Jordan and was negotiated by Meese, Shimon Peres , Bruce Rappaport , Robert C. McFarlane , and others. A report by special prosecutor James C. McKay cleared Meese of criminal wrongdoing but criticized him for ethical lapses, especially regarding bribes to Israel not to attack an Iraqi oil pipeline that benefited associates of Meese. In

10179-404: The movement, but it evokes notions of free speech and its implications through its rhetoric. Civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, and professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws , demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hence, civil disobedience

10296-487: The movement, was created in 1991 by artist Mark Brest van Kempen. It is located, appropriately, in Sproul Plaza. The monument consists of a six-inch hole in the ground filled with soil and a granite ring surrounding it. As a sort of protest autonomous zone , the granite ring bears the inscription, "This soil and the air space extending above it shall not be a part of any nation and shall not be subject to any entity's jurisdiction." The monument makes no explicit reference to

10413-612: The ordinary daily tables with free literature. Groups of political, religious and social persuasions set up tables at Sproul Plaza. The Sproul steps, now officially known as the "Mario Savio Steps", may be reserved for a speech or rally. An on-campus restaurant commemorating the event, the Mario Savio Free Speech Movement Cafe, resides in a portion of the Moffitt Undergraduate Library . The Free Speech Monument, commemorating

10530-438: The penalties set out in the law. Other civil disobedients who favour the existence of government still do not believe in the legitimacy of their particular government or do not believe in the legitimacy of a particular law it has enacted. Anarchistic civil disobedients do not believe in the legitimacy of any government, so see no need to accept punishment for a violation of criminal law. An important decision for civil disobedients

10647-414: The police from effectively responding to a mass protest. Many of the same decisions and principles that apply in other criminal investigations and arrests arise also in civil disobedience cases. For example, the suspect may need to decide whether to grant a consent search of his property and whether to talk to police officers. It is generally agreed within the legal community, and is often believed within

10764-608: The protest activity by student Ron Enfield (then chief photographer for the Berkeley campus newspaper, the Daily Cal ). A reproduction of what may be considered the most recognizable and iconic photograph of the movement, a shot of suit-clad students carrying the Free Speech banner through the University's Sather Gate in Fall of 1964, now stands at the entrance to the college's Free Speech Movement Cafe . Earlier protests against

10881-412: The protest." As civil disobedience is intentionally breaking the law, people engaging in civil disobedience can expect to be arrested , criminally charged , tried , and legally punished for breaking the law. Protestors have to make choices about how to respond to each of these results. Al Sharpton , a civil rights and social justice activist, says that civil disobedients "must be prepared to say

10998-671: The protesters attempted to enter the test site knowing that they faced arrest. At an announced time, one by one they crossed a line and were immediately arrested. They were put on a bus and taken to the Nye County seat of Tonopah, Nevada, and arraigned for trial before the local Justice of the Peace, that afternoon. A civil rights attorney, Francis Heisler, had volunteered to defend the accused, advising them to plead nolo contendere rather than guilty or not guilty. They were found guilty and given suspended sentences, conditional on not reentering

11115-594: The same level –a same "slate." The students created SLATE to promote the right of student groups to support off-campus issues. In the fall of 1964, student activists, some of whom had traveled with the Freedom Riders and worked to register African American voters in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer project, set up information tables on campus and were soliciting donations for causes connected to

11232-467: The slaves, or to march to Mexico;—see if I would go;" and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. By the 1850s, a range of minority groups in the United States : African Americans, Jews, Seventh Day Baptists , Catholics, anti-prohibitionists, racial egalitarians, and others—employed civil disobedience to combat

11349-596: The streets to prevent the installation of pagan images in the Temple in Jerusalem . In modern times, some activists who commit civil disobedience as a group collectively refuse to sign bail until certain demands are met, such as favourable bail conditions, or the release of all the activists. This is a form of jail solidarity . There have also been many instances of solitary civil disobedience, such as that committed by Thoreau, but these sometimes go unnoticed. Thoreau, at

11466-409: The table". The Plowshares organization temporarily closed GCSB Waihopai by padlocking the gates and using sickles to deflate one of the large domes covering two satellite dishes. Electronic civil disobedience can include web site defacements , redirects , denial-of-service attacks , information theft and data leaks , illegal web site parodies , virtual sit-ins , and virtual sabotage . It

11583-417: The tactic was applied to Boycott when the alarm was raised about the evictions. Despite the short-term economic hardship to those undertaking this action, Boycott soon found himself isolated – his workers stopped work in the fields and stables, as well as in his house. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, and the local postman refused to deliver mail. The movement spread throughout Ireland and gave rise to

11700-420: The tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with—for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel—and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as

11817-524: The term "civil disobedience" has always suffered from ambiguity and in modern times, become utterly debased. Marshall Cohen notes, "It has been used to describe everything from bringing a test-case in the federal courts to taking aim at a federal official . Indeed, for Vice President Spiro Agnew it has become a code-word describing the activities of muggers, arsonists, draft evaders, campaign hecklers, campus militants, anti-war demonstrators, juvenile delinquents and political assassins." LeGrande writes that

11934-652: The term civil disobedience, approved of the armed insurrection of John Brown . He also notes that some major civil disobedience campaigns which have been classified as non-violent, such as the Birmingham campaign , have actually included elements of violence. Non-revolutionary civil disobedience is a simple disobedience of laws on the grounds that they are judged "wrong" by a person's conscience, or as part of an effort to render certain laws ineffective, to cause their repeal, or to exert pressure to get one's political wishes on some other issue. Revolutionary civil disobedience

12051-489: The term to Boycott , and eventually led to legal reform and support for Irish independence. Egypt saw a massive implementation on a nation-wide movement starting 1914 and peaking in 1919 as the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 . This was then adopted by other peoples who campaigned against European colonial rule from 1920 onwards. Zaghloul Pasha , considered the mastermind behind this massive civil disobedience,

12168-402: The test site. Howard Zinn writes, There may be many times when protesters choose to go to jail, as a way of continuing their protest, as a way of reminding their countrymen of injustice. But that is different than the notion that they must go to jail as part of a rule connected with civil disobedience. The key point is that the spirit of protest should be maintained all the way, whether it

12285-461: The time of his arrest, was not yet a well-known author, and his arrest was not covered in any newspapers in the days, weeks and months after it happened. The tax collector who arrested him rose to higher political office, and Thoreau's essay was not published until after the end of the Mexican War. Civil disobedients have chosen a variety of different illegal acts. Hugo A. Bedau writes, There

12402-704: The trial of Berkeley demonstrators. Meese was recognized as one of five "Outstanding Young Men of California" by the California Junior Chamber of Commerce for his role in countering the Berkeley demonstrators. Meese's role in quelling the riots at UC Berkeley has been identified by critics and supporters as an example of a conservative law-enforcement philosophy at work. From January 1975 to May 1976, in Chula Vista , San Diego County, California , Meese served as vice president for administration of Rohr Industries , manufacturer of railcars for

12519-595: The university, where he also directed the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management. During the same time, Meese served as vice chairman of California's Organized Crime Control Commission and participated in the California Bar Association 's criminal law section. Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Following

12636-406: Was Democrat Edmund (Pat) Brown , who first telephoned Meese seeking advice on how to best handle the situation. "I told him," Meese said, "that the people in that building should be arrested and taken out of there. I told him that if they were allowed to stay, there would be another mob scene, even bigger, the next day." Meese and Deputy District Attorney Lowell Jensen later served as co-counsels in

12753-621: Was a native middle-class, Azhar graduate, political activist, judge, parliamentary and ex-cabinet minister whose leadership brought Christian and Muslim communities together as well as women into the massive protests. Along with his companions of Wafd Party , who have achieved an independence of Egypt and a first constitution in 1923. Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have revolted against what they deem to be unfair laws. It has been used in many nonviolent resistance movements in India ( Mahatma Gandhi 's campaigns for independence from

12870-641: Was accepted to Yale University and granted a scholarship. At Yale, Meese served as president of the Yale Political Union , chairman of the Conservative Party, chairman of the Yale Debate Association , and a member of the secret society Spade and Grave . Meese made the dean's list, and graduated with a B.A. in political science in 1953. At Yale, Meese was a member of ROTC . Upon graduating in 1953, he obtained

12987-553: Was also related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement . To this day, the Movement's legacy continues to shape American political dialogue both on college campuses and in broader society, influencing some political views and values of college students and the general public. In 1958, activist students organized SLATE , a campus political party meaning a "slate" of candidates running on

13104-469: Was eventually renamed "Essay on Civil Disobedience". After his landmark lectures were published in 1866, the term began to appear in numerous sermons and lectures relating to slavery and the war in Mexico. Thus, by the time Thoreau's lectures were first published under the title "Civil Disobedience", in 1866, four years after his death, the term had achieved fairly widespread usage. It has been argued that

13221-593: Was evicted, rather than resorting to violence, everyone in the locality should shun them. Following this Captain Charles Boycott , the land agent of an absentee landlord in County Mayo , Ireland , was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880. Boycott attempted to evict eleven tenants from his land. While Parnell's speech did not refer to land agents or landlords,

13338-706: Was lauded by social conservatives for his address to the Congress on the Bible in March 1982, when he said, "Someone has estimated that throughout the course of history man has adopted over four billion laws. It seems to me, with all that effort, we haven't improved one iota on the Ten Commandments." Near the end of Reagan's presidency, Meese's involvement in the Iran–Contra affair as a counselor and friend to Reagan

13455-431: Was making a choice. He admits that government may express the will of the majority but it may also express nothing more than the will of elite politicians. Even a good form of government is "liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it". If a government did express the voice of most people, this would not compel the obedience of those who disagree with what is said. The majority may be powerful but it

13572-628: Was one of the first to theorize and propose the strategy of non-cooperation, and thus a form of nonviolent disobedience, as a really effective weapon. In the lead-up to the Glorious Revolution in Britain—when the 1689 Bill of Rights was documented, the last Catholic monarch was deposed, and male and female joint-co-monarchs elevated—the English Midland Enlightenment developed a manner of voicing objection to

13689-495: Was scrutinized by the independent counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, which stated in its official report that Meese's knowledge of the 1985 HAWK transaction "raised serious legal questions". Meese was considered a powerful and influential figure in the White House . Former Reagan advisor and journalist David Gergen said, "He's a tremendously influential and highly valued adviser to the President who advises on issues all across

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