The New South Wales supreme court’s ruling is not merely the invalidation of a law. It draws a clear constitutional line: the state cannot suppress protest under broad justifications such as “social cohesion”.

In a decisive judgment, the court struck down protest laws introduced by the government of Chris Minns after the Bondi attack, placing a firm limit on state power. This is not a technical ruling. It is a direct rejection of a political logic that sought to redefine protest from a democratic right into a risk to be managed.

The law did not explicitly ban protests. Instead, it granted police broad powers to issue administrative declarations covering entire areas, effectively allowing authorities to restrict or prevent public gatherings. With repeated extensions, what was framed as an emergency measure became an ongoing mechanism to disable protest in the public sphere.

These powers did not remain theoretical. They became a tool for suppressing demonstrations, including the dispersal of peaceful protests, police interventions based on vague assessments and arrests widely described as arbitrary.

This use of power became particularly evident during the visit of Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to Sydney, when large protests took place against the devastating war in Gaza. Authorities relied on these expanded powers to manage and restrict those........

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