The first ammendment, "Congress shall make no law".

[Jacobtm]

The First ammendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Since it only says "Congress shall make no law", does that mean that other governmental bodies can affect changes that will prohibit the free exercise of religion, abridge freedom of speech, etc?

For instance, can a police officer constitutionally force a peaceful assembly of citizens to disperse?

[A18]

As an original matter, the entire Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, but the Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment, is made applicable to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause.

[Emsworth]

Your question can be broken down into two separate parts: may the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment be abridged by the federal executive and judicial branches, and may they be abridged by the states?

As for the federal government: Although the First Amendment only speaks of Congress, its guarantees indirectly extend to the other two branches as well. Consider, for example, the President. His authority flows from two sources: the powers enumerated in the Constitution, and the powers granted by Congress. The power to abridge the freedom of speech is not enumerated anywhere in the Constitution. And, Congress may not grant the President the power to abridge the freedom of speech, because doing so would violate the explicit text of the Constitution. Thus, the President may not abridge the freedom of speech, etc. The same analysis applies to the judiciary.

As for the states: The Fourteenth Amendment makes the guarantees of the First Amendment (and the rest of the Bill of Rights) binding upon the state governments (including local governments).

[Jacobtm]

So then, a question on the real life situation that brought this question up.

I was with a group of friends, peacefully assembled on a public sidewalk, talking and trying to figure out what we should all do that evening. A police officer told us that we needed to leave, simply saying that we weren't allowed to stand in that particular spot. We moved away from that spot, and he returned, telling us to move farther away, not satisfied with how far away we'd moved. We were just on a sidewalk, not on any private property, and not doing anything illegal.

He really had no authority to tell us to move, correct?