The mass street demonstrations that followed the 2020 police murder of George Floyd were perhaps the largest in American history. These events confirmed that even in a digital era, people rely on public dissent to communicate grievances, change public discourse, and stand in collective solidarity with others. However, the demonstrations also showed that the laws surrounding public protest make public contention more dangerous, more costly, and less effective. Police fired tear gas into peaceful crowds, used physical force against compliant demonstrators, imposed broad curfews, limited the places where protesters could assemble, and abused 'unlawful assembly' and other public disorder laws. These and other pathologies epitomize a system in which public protest is tightly constrained in the name of public order. Managed Dissent argues that in order to preserve the venerable tradition of public protest in the US, we must reform several aspects of the law of public protest.

Winner, 2023 Choice Awards

‘A timely and thoughtful study of the politics and law of policing public protest, and an urgent call for letting people pursue the American tradition of taking it to the streets.’

David Cole - National Legal Director, ACLU

‘This book is a tour de force on the constitutional dimensions of protest and dissent. Tim Zick weaves together important but often disconnected threads of the law to show the significant impediments to the law of public protest and what can be done to remove them.’

John Inazu - Washington University in St Louis and author of Liberty’s Refuge

‘Tim Zick is one of our most thoughtful, articulate scholars of free speech. Managed Dissent explores the value of street protest for liberal democracy and makes an essential case for celebrating and protecting our right to protest.’

Gregory Magarian - Washington University School of Law and author of Managed Speech

‘Tim Zick has produced the definitive account of the law of public protest. While he offers an impassioned defense of public protest, Zick also warns of the many forces aligned against it. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in how governments manage dissent and how we can preserve our long tradition of public protest.’

Nadine Strossen - National President (1991–2008), ACLU

‘… Zick provides a thoughtful, compelling defense of dissent and an important analysis of why dissent is so constrained and disfavored, especially in a nation forged through dissent … Highly recommended.’

J. A. Pierceson Source: Choice