This is an aspect of police power that buts up against civil liberties, and its very murky.
As I can tell, this is mostly a state issue. Some state activity has been challenged successfully on First Amendment free speech grounds. These laws have been criticized as providing complete discretion for police to actions on he ground.
- LII - Breach of the peace: Breach of the peace is a generic phrase to describe a criminal offense that violates the public peace or order. Since numerous criminal offenses can be perceived as a violation of the public peace, this phrase is usually used to describe the offense of disorderly conduct. Due to the broad interpretation of the phrase, certain states have enacted statutes providing for a “breach of the peace” offense.
- - See also disturbance of the peace.
- Wikipedia - Breach of the peace: In the United States, prosecutions for breach of the peace are subject to constitutional constraints. In Terminiello v. City of Chicago (1949), the United States Supreme Court held that an ordinance of the City of Chicago that banned speech which "stirs the public to anger, invites dispute, brings about a condition of unrest, or creates a disturbance" was unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Justice Douglas stated: "Accordingly a function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea."
- Click here for Texas' laws on disorderly conduct. It contains this entertaining list of things you best not do in public in Texas:
Sec. 42.01. DISORDERLY CONDUCT. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly:
(2) makes an offensive gesture or display in a public place, and the gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;
(3) creates, by chemical means, a noxious and unreasonable odor in a public place;
(4) abuses or threatens a person in a public place in an obviously offensive manner;
(5) makes unreasonable noise in a public place other than a sport shooting range, as defined by Section 250.001, Local Government Code, or in or near a private residence that he has no right to occupy;
(6) fights with another in a public place;
(7) discharges a firearm in a public place other than a public road or a sport shooting range, as defined by Section 250.001, Local Government Code;
(8) displays a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm;
(9) discharges a firearm on or across a public road;
(10) exposes his anus or genitals in a public place and is reckless about whether another may be present who will be offended or alarmed by his act; or
(11) for a lewd or unlawful purpose
