The first amendment versus the World Trade Organization: Emergency powers and the battle in Seattle

The 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Seattle was the target of highly organized, widely supported protest demonstrations. In response to the protests. city officials declared a state of emergency, or dering nighttime curfews and a daytime "no-protest zone" in downtown Seattl e. They reasoned that the zone was necessary to protect the rights of WTO d elegates and to restore public order. This Comment argues that mass nonviol ent protests deserve more First Amendment protection than was afforded to d emonstrators in Seattle. Even when violence occurs and public order is thre atened, governments must narrowly tailor emergency orders to avoid tramplin g on peaceful protesters' First Amendment rights. An analysis of U.S. Supre me Court and Ninth Circuit case law demonstrates that Seattle's "no-protest zone" was unconstitutional and that courts should strike down similar rest rictions on mass protests.