It was just before the general election in November 2016 when Shaw had attempted to distribute Spanish-language copies of the Constitution during a recruiting drive for his student group, a campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty on the main quad at Pierce College. An administrator told him he could not distribute literature outside the designated zone. Shaw said at the time he was also told that he would have to fill out a permit application to use the free speech zone and would be asked to leave campus if he refused to comply.

“When I attempted to hand out copies of the Constitution that day, my only intention was to get students thinking about our founding principles and to inspire discussion of liberty and free speech,” Shaw said in a statement to Fox News in early 2017. “I had no idea I would be called upon to defend those very ideals against Pierce’s unconstitutional campus policies.”

Shaw, with the help of advocacy organization, The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), filed suit back in March 2017 and this past January, a federal district court denied the district and Pierce College administrators’ motion to dismiss Shaw’s lawsuit finding that the open spaces of public colleges are traditional public forums for student speech regardless of regulations. Because of his efforts, Shaw reformed policies on 9 different campuses including:
Los Angeles Pierce College
East Los Angeles College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles Harbor College
Los Angeles MIssion College
Los Angeles Trade-Technical College
Los Angeles Valley College
Los Angeles Southwest College
West Los Angeles College