I’m a public interest litigator and I just sued Oregon to challenge its law prohibiting mathematical criticism—in this case, about traffic light camera timing—without a license. Ask me anything about fighting for free speech. - Politics

I’m a public interest litigator and I just sued Oregon to challenge its law prohibiting mathematical criticism—in this case, about traffic light camera timing—without a license. Ask me anything about fighting for free speech.
Hi. I am Sam Wang, a neuroscientist. My hobby is statistical politics. I am fascinated by gerrymandering and helping courts diagnose it. Ask Me Anything!
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I’m a public interest litigator and I just sued Oregon to challenge its law prohibiting mathematical criticism—in this case, about traffic light camera timing—without a license. Ask me anything about fighting for free speech.

Posted: 23 May 2017 10:58 AM PDT

::edit:: I've got to turn to some other stuff, but thanks for the great questions, all, and for your interest in the case!

Running red lights can get you a ticket. But in Oregon, you can be fined just for talking about it. Mats Järlström learned this first-hand last year when the state of Oregon fined him $500 for publicly suggesting that yellow lights should last for slightly longer to accommodate cars making right turns.

It all started when Mats's wife received a red-light camera ticket, which sparked Mats's interest in how exactly yellow lights are timed. He did a little Googling and found the formula used to set traffic-light times. The length of time a traffic light stays yellow is based on a relatively straightforward mathematical formula, originally drafted in 1959. Mats realized that the formula is incomplete. Mats's work was generally met with interest and praise, but when Mats e-mailed the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying, things took an abrupt illegal U-turn. The Board told Mats they had no interest in hearing about his ideas. Fair enough. But the Board didn't stop there. They launched a full-blown investigation, alleging that he'd engaged in the unlicensed "practice of engineering."

But now, Mats is fighting back. No matter how technical the topic, the government cannot give state-licensed experts a monopoly on exchanging ideas. Mats isn't claiming the right to single-handedly change traffic lights himself; he just wants to talk about them.

The government has also stopped people like Mats from truthfully calling themselves "engineers." Just as the State of Oregon has no monopoly on engineering concepts, it has no monopoly on words. That is why Mats has teamed up with the Institute for Justice to ask the federal courts to protect the First Amendment rights of all Oregonians to speak freely about whatever they want. It's time for Oregon to give free speech the green light.

Sam Gedge is a lawyer at the public-interest Institute for Justice, which is representing Mats in his First Amendment case.

edit: Proof!

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Hi. I am Sam Wang, a neuroscientist. My hobby is statistical politics. I am fascinated by gerrymandering and helping courts diagnose it. Ask Me Anything!

Posted: 24 May 2017 07:25 AM PDT

12:34pm: Thank you, everyone! This was great fun. For more juicy nerdery on these topics, see the links below. -Sam

The Supreme Court says the partisan gerrymandering can be regulated in principle. However, they haven't agreed on a standard to evaluate it, and they have ruled out multiple ideas. I have proposed simple tests in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Stanford Law Review. You can explore my standards at https://gerrymander.princeton.edu.

In addition, we have a contest to see if the standards can be hacked: Go to http://election.princeton.edu/2017/05/20/hack-the-gerrymandering-standard/

I have been a professor at Princeton University since 2000. My research concerns how the brain learns, in adulthood and development. In 2004, I pioneered the use of state polls to track presidential elections. That project became the Princeton Election Consortium.

Don't ask me about how bugs taste. ;-)

https://twitter.com/SamWangPhD/status/866306875800907776

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Trump tells Duterte of two U.S. nuclear subs in Korean waters: NYT

Posted: 24 May 2017 04:15 AM PDT