I'm Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to the latest of our We the People constitutional podcasts.

The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America, chartered by Congress to disseminate

information about the US Constitution on a nonpartisan basis. And today we're

talking about the most explosive constitutional issue in America today.

And that has to do with race and the criminal justice system.

Two shocking events, the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten

Island, New York have led to a furious national dialogue about how the legal system deals

with the police. Brown died in August after a

confrontation with officer Darren Wilson. Garner passed away in July after he was

placed in a chokehold by Officer Daniel Pantalio.

Brown and Garner were both African American.

The officers are white and in both incidents grand juries declined to indict the officers.

In the aftermath of these refusals to indict the officers. In the aftermath of these refusals to indict, there have been public

protests about the decision and a spirited national debate about long-range changes in the

legal system.

Joining us to discuss this most important

of all constitutional controversies

are the two leading experts in America

on this complicated question.

Tracy Meirs is the Walter Hale-Hamilton professor of law at Yale Law School.

Before arriving at Yale, she was Max Pam Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago Law School.

Paul Butler is Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

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