The First Amendment Security Blanket

Prior to January 24th 2021, if you were to open up Spotify and click on the “Podcasts & Shows” tab, “The Joe Rogan Experience” would take up the entire top half of your screen. This Spotify exclusive is the largest podcast in the world, where notoriously controversial comedian Joe Rogan has smoked marijuana with Elon […]

Do You Hear the People Sing? – How Chinese censorship of the coronavirus is spurring an online revolution.

“There should be more than one voice in a healthy society.” Dr. Li Wenliang’s words renewed a rebellious spirit within the Chinese people, and his death prompted the start of an ongoing online revolution protesting the government’s increased censorship. After Dr. Wenliang’s attempt to warn the public of the emergent virus that threatened China in […]

“Under the Dome”

China’s internet censors strike again, and this time, the country’s already deteriorating environment becomes the victim of their restrictive policies. A newly released documentary, “Under the Dome,” instantly went viral on the internet as the most thorough investigation of China’s pollution problems. In its first week the documentary attracted more than twenty millions viewers and […]

Liberty and Protest

There is a consistent tension between the “sovereign’s” First Amendment Rights to free speech and assembly and the state’s chronic apprehensiveness about the creation of a dynamic and potentially unstable security situation. In the aftermath of the Berkeley Black Live Matter Protests, I personally was drawn to the interesting phenomenon of violent crowd dispersal and […]

Free Speech and the Right to Curse at a Police Officer

Most pedestrians of Sproul Plaza have probably noticed that the University of California Police Department (UCPD) has been cracking down on bicyclists in recent weeks, handing out dozens of tickets to students in violation of the university’s ”Dismount Zone” policy. A relatively unknown and ignored rule, the Dismount Zone is a designated area on south campus where bicyclists are required […]