WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity saw a number of changes to how law enforcement deals with protest activities . " The National Lawyers Guild , which has a 35-year history of monitoring First Amendment activity , has witnessed a notable change in police treatment of political protesters since the November 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle . At subsequent gatherings in Washington , D.C. , Detroit , Philadelphia , Los Angeles , Miami , Chicago , and Portland a pattern of behavior that stifles First Amendment rights has emerged " . In a subsequent lawsuit , the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that " It was lawful for the city of Seattle to deem part of downtown off-limits ... But the court also said that police enforcing the rule may have gone too far by targeting only those opposed to the WTO , in violation of their First Amendment rights . " Free speech zones were used in Boston at the 2004 Democratic National Convention . The free speech zones organized by the authorities in Boston were boxed in by concrete walls , invisible to the FleetCenter where the convention was held and criticized harshly as a " protest pen " or " Boston 's Camp X-Ray " . " Some protesters for a short time Monday July 26 , 2004 converted the zone into a mock prison camp by donning hoods and marching in the cage with their hands behind their backs . " A coalition of groups protesting the Iraq War challenged the planned protest zones . U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock was sympathetic to their request : " One can not conceive of what other design elements could be put into a space to create a more symbolic affront to the role of free expression . " . However , he ultimately rejected the petition to move the protest zones closer to the FleetCenter
2004 Democratic National Convention
2004 Democratic National Convention
Free speech zone