Students filled the Diablo Room on Sept. 22 to hear Diablo Valley College faculty express concerns over the nation’s current political and social environment, and address why understanding our constitutional rights has never been more important.

“The Constitution has always been in crisis for those it was never intended to include,” said Dr. Albert Ponce, social justice program co-director and political science professor at DVC, introducing last month’s event titled “Constitution in Crisis,” held to commemorate Constitution Day.

The panel featured four professors and an immigration lawyer, who spoke from their respective fields and offered advice to students during the country’s troubled times.

Dr. Sangha Niyogi, sociology professor and social justice program co-director, started the discussion by touching on the Trump administration’s attacks on marginalized communities, asking the audience: “Does one group’s religious freedom outweigh another’s right to equal protection?”

Niyogi addressed the assault on women’s rights around the narrowing of Title IX and restrictions on birth control; the neglect of LGBTQ+ rights; and the alienation of the trans community by the current U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whose new definition of sex allows schools to deny transgender students access to restrooms that align with their gender identity. 

“Women don’t need protection from trans individuals,” Niyogi said, adding, “we have a lot more to worry about.” 

Next, Ponce took to the podium where he pointed out recent Supreme Court cases that seemed to reveal corruption within the highest levels of government.

Specifically, he cited Trump v. The United States, a case in which the Supreme Court issued a ruling on July 1, 2024, stating that a sitting president is permitted presumptive immunity from prosecution for official acts.

“That’s a very broad scope of legal protection for the executive issued by a court in which three of the nine justices were appointed by President Trump,” Ponce said.

An even more recent example was the Supreme Court’s decision handed down only weeks ago, on Sept. 8, pausing a ruling in a lower Los Angeles court that restricted federal agents’ ability to make immigration stops based on racial profiling.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor disagreed sharply with the decision, calling it “unconscionably irreconcilable” in her 21-page dissent. 

“We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job,” the justice wrote.

Professor Michael Levitin, Journalism Department Chair and advisor to The Inquirer, took the microphone to issue outspoken criticism of the Trump administration’s attempt to crack down on free speech, starting with the constitutional reminder that in this country, “you have a right to criticize power.”

The First Amendment protects people’s fundamental freedom against government interference in the realm of religion, speech, the press, right of assembly, and the right to petition the government with grievances. The Founding Fathers added this foundational amendment to the Constitution explicitly to prevent the government from censoring or controlling free expression and to avoid tyranny within the nation.

President Donald Trump has exercised his First Amendment right many times — most recently by claiming that a mother taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) while pregnant can increase the baby’s chance of developing autism. 

“You got something to say? Doesn’t matter if it’s true or false, if it’s lousy or if it’s angry,” Levitin said, pointing out the increased amount of misinformation and hate speech that’s been circulating since 2016. “You can have hate speech, you can deny slavery, you can deny the Holocaust — but you’re free to say it.”

However, “now we’re seeing a flip-flop [by the right], of ‘wait, we don’t want to see that speech, open speech, free speech,’ with anybody saying whatever they want about Charlie Kirk,” Levitin said. “That’s not the speech they want.”

Trump has a history of suppressing voices that speak out against him, Levitin added. For example, at the beginning of his political campaign in 2015, one of Trump’s first targets was journalists. He gave them a title that attempted to put a stain on the industry, calling them “the enemy of the people,” and often commented on their reporting as “fake news.” 

“In this case of free speech, when you say, ‘I only believe in free speech when it’s speech that I accept, that I feel like I can hear because it reinforces my ideas of the world,’ that’s not the First Amendment,” Levitin said. “It doesn’t work like that.”

Dr. Kamara Taylor, professor of psychology and that program’s co-lead, took a different approach to the Constitution, exploring the psychological effects of stripping certain minority groups that fought hard to be recognized.

“The message is clear,” Taylor said, referring to the Trump administration’s recent bashing of certain marginalized groups, “some lives, some voices, some identities matter less.”

Taylor elaborated in her lecture on how recent decisions made by Trump have caused people to live in a state of hypervigilance. 

She suggested a couple of ideas about how people can push back against the injustices: by recommitting to education, exercising our rights, practicing civil empathy, and building collective resilience.

“Constitution Day should not be a history lesson,” said Taylor, “it should be a civic ritual, a reminder that ‘we the people’ is not just a phrase on parchment.” 

Erika Padilla, an attorney for the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA), ended the panel discussion by giving people advice about what to do if they are encountered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

First and foremost, stay calm and tell ICE that you do not consent to a search, which is your Fourth Amendment right, Padilla said. A search is considered unreasonable if ICE lacks either a judicial warrant, probable cause, or explicit consent.

If ICE shows up at your door, do not open it, she added. Rather, ask them to slide the search warrant under the door to verify if the search is lawful or not. And if you are detained, she added, practice your Fifth Amendment right: the right to remain silent. 

Do not provide additional information about yourself, Padilla warned, and do not lie. 

“The Constitution protects all people living in the United States, regardless of immigration status,” she said.

Before the panel wrapped up, Niyogi reminded the audience that no one can take away people’s constitutional rights and reiterated the importance of assembling and speaking out.

“Social justice is not automatic,” Niyogi said. “It requires active engagement, civic participation and solidarity.”