Obviously, this is very niche but felt it was worth a vent in case anyone can relate. A large number of businesses that fall under SEC jurisdiction – including broker-dealers, RIAs, some bank roles, some insurance roles – are allowed to dictate policies where you have to get permission to be politically active, outside voting. These rules were intended to limit the donations and influence of major bankers and financial industry leaders. In practice, these people aren’t limited much at all because they have enough money to work around it or use intermediaries. As a low level employee in one of these firms however, I would, at least in theory, need to tell my employer first before joining any political organization, donating to a candidate or participating in a protest. The chilling effect this has on freedom of speech is obvious but apparently legal. If you, for example, wanted to join DSA, you’d need to tell** a financial firm ** you want to join DSA. They could theoretically tell you no or terminate you if you didn’t tell them. It’s been the policy at at least four companies I’ve been with. I don’t know the policy solution since other original theoretical intent is good but the application is Orwellian.