Originally published in the Fall 2022 issue of California Publisher. by Jason M. Shepard Not all superheroes wear capes. Some are high school journalism advisers like Adriana Chavira. Despite California having some of the strongest student press freedom laws in the country, the Los Angeles veteran student newspaper adviser and…

Originally published in the Summer 2022 issue of California Publisher. By Jason M. Shepard After Twitter and other social media companies banned President Donald Trump from their platforms, many of Trump’s supporters decried content moderation policies as among the biggest threats to the Republic. “Silicon Valley is acting as a…

Originally published in the Spring 2022 issue of California Publisher. By Jason M. Shepard A child abuser in Las Vegas sentenced to 35 years in prison. A murder in Miami solved after a gas station robbery. Unidentified protestors turned into violent rioters at the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on…

Originally published in the Winter 2022 issue of California Publisher. By Jason M. Shepard A Christian web designer who refuses to create marriage websites for same-sex couples is at the center of a new case before the U.S. Supreme Court pitting free speech rights against anti-discrimination laws. The case is…

Originally published in the Fall 2021 issue of California Publisher. By Jason M. Shepard As public protests over police misconduct spread throughout the United States after the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, one of the biggest threats to journalists trying to report the news came from the police. …

Originally published in the Summer 2021 issue of California Publisher. By Jason M. Shepard The U.S. Department of Justice under President Joe Biden announced new legal protections for journalists and their confidential sources, signaling a major shift to protect press freedom after years of aggressive leak investigations under Presidents Barack…

Originally published in Spring 2021 issue of California Publisher. By Jason Shepard The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether a school district violated a cheerleader’s First Amendment rights when it suspended her for venting on Snapchat about not making the varsity team. In doing so, the Court could create…

Originally published in California Publisher, Winter 2021. By Jason Shepard Donald Trump’s presidency ended in January days after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as his successor, resulting in Trump’s second impeachment and his permanent ban from Twitter and Facebook. Trump’s legacy on…

Originally published in California Publisher, Fall 2020. By Jason M. Shepard Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump regularly attacked the foundations and precedents of the First Amendment. He sued news organizations for libel, tried to stop the publication of books critical of him, and called for the firing and jailing of…