On December 14, I gave a lecture at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco on "Libel and Disinformation." The lecture was for an in-person audience and on Zoom. The lecture will be available world-wide as a "Frommcast." It featured a discussion of the conservative campaign to restrict the mainstream media's protection from libel suits and to ban social media from "deplatforming" conservatives because of their viewpoints. The lecture is online; go to: https://fromm.gatherlearning.com and scroll down to the lecture.

 Today, after doing the radio interview on KPFA (link: https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=326538), I went to Cal for the first class in this semester's Freedom of Speech and the Press. SRO. It's a great looking class, agreeing that the topic is timely. (It always is.)

Yesterday I taught a "mini-course" at San Francisco State's OLLI program. It was Free Speech for Some: How the Supreme Court is Changing the First Amendment. Citizens United and NIFLA (the abortion clinics "compelled speech" case were featured. Lively crowd.

Today was the first class of my Free Speech for Some course at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco. I have a SRO crowd of 140 senior citizens. Very lively and engaged. It's very different from the UCB freshman seminars I taught the last two falls: They already think critically. Class meets on Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:40. Exhilarating.

Today was the first day of classes for my Spring course, Media Studies 104A. The course is full with a long wait list. I'm limiting the enrollment to 50 in the hope of putting in more hands-on help with student writing. I'm certainly unqualified to teach writing, but I'm certainly experienced in spotting bad writing, mostly by lawyers. The First Amendment content of course is always timely, especially as the politically conservative members of the Roberts Court appear to be "weaponizing" the amendment to serve a conservative agenda.

Yesterday was the first class for this fall's freshman seminar at Cal, The U.S. Supreme Court: A Critical Appraisal. The 16 students (that's all I could take) are great: engaged, eager, wanting to learn. I expect to learn a lot from them

Classes started today on my course at Cal, Freedom of Speech and the Press. The Chancellor declared this to be Free Speech Year at Berkeley, so the course is (as always it seems) timely. This year I include some new Supreme Court free speech decisions, and there are four more to come before June. Course is full with a long wait list.

My OLLI course on The Roberts Court and the First Amendment started yesterday at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Given the recent events in Berkeley and Charlottesville, the students are definitely tuned in to free speech issues. Here's a link to a preview of the course.
https://youtu.be/Ml4rNBGnQEo