Our discussion soon turned to how much fun it would be to practice constitutional law in the real world. Alas, my friend and I decided that there could not be much of a call for constitutional lawyers anymore, so we prepared ourselves for a lifetime of taxes, real estate, and other equally exciting areas of law. Six months later, here I am studying the First Amendment at the Citizen Advocacy Center. Much to my surprise, governments are still trying to limit their citizens' freedom of speech. Government bodies are imposing unconstitutional, content-based restrictions on public comment at their meetings, and school boards are putting vague and arbitrary limitations on student publications.
Cities refuse to allow public interest organizations to hang their banners.
All right here in the Chicagoland area. It turns out there is a call for constitutional lawyering in today's society. For example, if a city council allows public comment at its meetings, it cannot restrict the content of those comments. The restrictions must be content neutral on their face and applied in a content neutral manner. I never thought I would have the opportunity to work on constitutional issues outside of an academic setting, and I am very happy to have had this opportunity with the Citizen Advocacy Center.