right to petition

The right to petition is one of the rights protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and is applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It protects the ability to submit petitions to federal and state courts, legislatures, and executive authorities, including the right to bring suit in court. The right does not require the government to respond to any petition.

Public employees are protected from governmental retaliation under the Petition Clause only when petitioning on matters of public concern, not matters of purely private concern. See: Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri (2011).

[Last reviewed in August of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team] 

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