It is my view that peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society, if those laws or the government enforcing them are believed to be unjust. In any true democracy, the people have a right, and an obligation, to rebel against an unjust government. As Harris G. Mirkin has written, “The Declaration of Independence, a document that Jefferson claimed was merely an ‘expression of the American mind,’ declared that it was the ‘Right of the people to alter or abolish’ any government, and institute a new one that would better secure their safety and happiness.” While rebellion in any form should not be the first choice, it is occasionally the only choice. The same principles that apply to a revolutionary rebellion also apply to a peaceful…