Welcome to Week 4!  Throughout this topic,  we will begin to dig more deeply into the contentious types of issues that brought some of you to take a class in political science in the first place!  Civil liberties and civil rights are often confused with each other, so start with your assigned textbook chapter and videos, to make sure you understand what separates as well as unites these two areas.  This week, you’ll read and think about what civil liberties are (protections from improper government action), where they come from in the US Constitution, what the limits of civil liberties are, and what happens when civil liberties conflict with each other or with civil rights.  For instance, if you call your boss an @sshole, and they fire you, is that a violation of your civil liberty of freedom of speech?  (spoiler alert: it’s not!)  What limits is it okay for the US government to place on religious practices?  What restrictions is it okay for the US government to place on sex?  (Hint:  if you think about it, there are several limits on sex you’re probably fine with the government putting in to place (laws about consent, location, animals, etc), but several you wouldn’t be okay with (as in, if there are two consenting adults in private, what right could the government have to say about who puts what where?).  While that last point may sound absurd to you, the last sodomy laws (which criminalized certain types of sexual behavior between consenting adults in private) were not overturned until 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.

We’re in a good news/bad news situation on blogging- we’ve got more writing on the blog and comments (good!) but a lot of it was not written by humans (bad!). I will repeate again the class policy: DO NOT SUBMIT WORK THAT YOU CREATED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF AI. We often think of using writing to demonstrate our learning- we do a bunch of research and thinking, then write a report to show it off.  But you can also use writing to learn and that’s what we’re trying to do here. You should use your blogging as a way to think through the complex topics we are covering in this class.  AI will likely be a tool you use in other work in the future, but the purpose of your blogs and comments is not to write perfect prose (which AI is increasingly helpful for) but for you to ACTUALLY DO SOME THINKING AND LEARNING (using AI is a shortcut that reduces your thinking and learning skills which is why I don’t allow it in my class).

I really don’t want to approach this punitively, so I’ll give everyone until Thursday (October 3) to remove anything that was written with AI from our blog (you can make up the posts later, as long as they are with your own words), and we’ll all move forward productively together. If, however, anyone leaves up their work that was AI generated after Thursday, or uses AI in new work, I will have no choice but to go through the formal reporting process at KCC for this academic integrity violation (this can result in failure for assignments, for the course, and/or permanent notation on your transcript, among other possible negative outcomes; more details are available on CUNY’s updated Academic Integrity Policy). If you used AI to write the text (or “help” you write the text), please delete it and don’t do it again. If you have any questions, or need any help with this, please see me in office hours from 3-4pm, or email me to make an appointment at a time that is convenient.