I am the foremost expert on American Constitutional Law in all of Jinzhou. I might even be the leading expert in all of Liaoning Province, depending on who the State Department has posted in Shenyang. Alan Dershowitz doesn’t come to this neighborhood.

The reason I mention this is because my boss, the Director of the English Language Department, wanted all the foreign teachers to give lectures to his staff. He said we could pick our own topics, but that I had to go first. At first I thought I would give a lecture on the limits on free expression in the United States. Then when I found out I had to talk for over an hour, I decided to open it up to the whole Bill of Rights (BOR).

Josh found a pdf file with the BOR translated into Chinese. It is amazing what you can find on the internet! This particular document came from a group called “Jews for Handguns” or something like that. They included their own commentary on the BOR, but I didn’t want to use that. Luckily, the commentary was indented, so I could cut it out even though I don’t read Chinese.

And it went remarkably well. I talked about the ideals embodied by the BOR and how the government sometimes fails to live up to those ideals. I spent a lot of time talking about the First Amendment, of course. I could see them get a little bit worried when I got to the part about freedom of assembly. That touched a nerve. But then they relaxed when they realized I was not going to make any cross-cultural comparisons. I explained time-place-and-manner-restrictions. I also mentioned that people get arrested for protesting all the time in America. The first amendment usually protects protesters from conviction, but sometimes conviction is not the goal. I mentioned that during the political conventions lots of people were arrested just to get them off the street for a day.

The teachers chuckled in recognition when I talked about the Miranda warnings they had seen on TV. “You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney. The source of those guarantees is in the 5th and 6th Amendments.”

They asked some very good questions, too. One teacher asked if the BOR extends to immigrants. I said, yes, absolutely. There is nothing in the BOR that limits it to citizens. Another teacher asked about the 4th Amendment, what happens in an emergency situation? Is it always necessary to get a warrant? I explained that it is very easy to get a warrant, but in certain very limited circumstances they can be issued retroactively.

I had a lot of fun, and the teachers were genuinely interested in the information. They don’t even need Alan Dershowitz. They’ve got me!