Death Row, Religious Freedom, Legislative Censure, and Free Speech

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2022

⏱️ 60 minutes

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Summary

Last week the Supreme Court handed down two nearly unanimous decisions in cases involving the First Amendment. One was an 8-1 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts in Ramirez v. Collier, in which the Court sided with a death row inmate who claimed he had the right to have the religious leader of his choice touch him and pray audibly for him in the execution chamber. The other opinion was 9-0 in Houston Community College v. Wilson, where the Court held that a legislative censure issued by a community college board did not violate the free speech rights of the respondent, another trustee on the board, in an opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch. First Amendment experts Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School and Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law join host Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the opinions’ impact on how we interpret and understand religious freedom and freedom of speech in America. The National Constitution Center relies on support from listeners like you to provide nonpartisan constitutional education to Americans of all ages. Visit www.constitutioncenter.org/we-the-people to donate, and thank you for your crucial support. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome
0:09.7	to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:13.4	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase awareness
0:19.5	and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:23.0	Last week, the Supreme Court handed down two nearly unanimous opinions in cases involving the First Amendment.
0:31.0	One was an 8-1 decision in Ramirez Ramirez versus Collier about a death row inmates
0:34.9	claims to have the religious leader of his choice touch him and pray with him in the execution
0:41.1	chamber. The other was a unanimous decision
0:44.2	in Houston Community College versus Wilson,
0:47.0	which said that legislative censure
0:49.9	did not violate the free speech rights of the respondent.
0:54.1	To help us understand what these two opinions
0:57.2	can teach us about the First Amendment
0:59.8	and the future of the court,
1:01.8	we have invited two of America's leading First Amendment
1:04.8	experts. It's such an honor to convene both of them and I'm so looking forward to
1:08.4	learning from both of them as always. Michael McConnell is Richard and Francis Mallory Professor of Law at Stanford and Director of the Constitutional Law Center.
1:17.5	He filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioner in Ramirez B. Collier, which was cited by the court.
1:24.0	Michael, welcome back to We The People.
1:26.0	It's so wonderful to be with you.
1:28.0	Thank you, Jeff. And Eugene Volk is Gary T. Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of Law
1:32.5	at UCLA School of Law.
	...

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