Cristian Farias
Podcast Writer and Host, Knight Institute

Cristian Farias is a legal journalist and the host of the Knight Institute’s podcast “The Bully’s Pulpit: Trump v. The First Amendment.” He was previously a co-founder and the senior editor of Inquest, published by Harvard Law School’s Institute to End Mass Incarceration. He has written about law and justice issues for The New York Times’ editorial board, as well as for New York magazine, Vanity Fair, GQ, The Atlantic, Slate, The New Yorker, The Nation, and other outlets. In related roles, he has served as a legal editor with Radiolab’s “More Perfect,” a podcast about the Supreme Court, and as a legal affairs reporter for The Huffington Post. He has also completed two writing residencies—at the Knight Institute, 2019-2020, and at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In a prior life, Farias was an entertainment journalist. In 2009, in a professional twist, he became a probation officer with the New Jersey court system. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and the City University of New York School of Law.
Contact
Selected Projects
Selected Work
-
Donald Trump, Mahmoud Khalil, and Free Speech Under Siege: “We’re in an Alarming Period”
Vanity Fair
-
Why the Supreme Court Put Its Foot Down on One Lawless Trump Deportation
Vanity Fair
-
The Federal Workforce Resistance to Donald Trump Is Here
Vanity Fair
-
TikTok’s Fate Is in the Supreme Court’s Hands
Vanity Fair
-
What Was the Trump Justice Department's Problem with Covid-19 Posters?
New York magazine
-
He Won a Landmark Case for Privacy Rights. He’s Going to Prison Anyway.
The New York Times

Contact
Selected Projects
Selected Events
-
Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders
A symposium and exhibition exploring the international border as a venue, justification, or pretext for censorship or surveillance
Writings & Appearances
-
Analysis
The Trump Administration Is Gagging America’s Immigration Judges
Excerpt from an essay by the Institute's writer-in-residence published in The Atlantic
-
Analysis
Visiting the U.S.? The Government is Reading Your Old Facebook Posts
A new lawsuit could help stop the surveillance of 14 million people a year who visit the US. The courts must put an end to overreach.
-