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

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

about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.

And today we discuss the most hotly contested First Amendment question of the week, namely does the First Amendment protect racist speech on college campuses?

On March 10th, the University of Oklahoma expelled two students after a viral video showed

them leading members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in a song whose lyrics included

racial slurs.

In a letter to the two students, the president of the

university David Boren explained that they were expelled because of your

leadership role in leading a racist and exclusionary chant which has created a hostile educational environment for others.

Borne also severed ties between the university and the fraternity chapter forcing the frat to close. A recent U-Gov poll suggests that 57% of Americans

agreed with the university's decision to expel the students and 59% agreed with the

university's decision to close the fret house.

But our question today is not a political but constitutional.

Does the First Amendment protect the speech or not?

And to discuss that fascinating question are two superb constitutional

scholars, the leading First Amendment thinkers in the nation who have been

illuminating about the Oklahoma case.

Eugene Volk is Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law

at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches free speech law

and the First Amendment amicus brief clinic.

He is the founder and co-author of the invaluable

...