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I am Michael Gerhart, a constitutional law professor at the University of

North Carolina and have the honor of being scholar and residents at the National

Constitution Center and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.

Jeffrey Rosen, the Center's President and CEO is away this week.

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.

Today we discuss recent controversies on the campuses of Yale University, which happens to me, my alma mater, and the University of Missouri

involving the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, free speech and hate speech.

Just as background, you should know that at Yale, the controversy started after an email from its

Intercultural Affairs Committee, encouraging students to show restraint in their

Halloween costume selections. Two professors objected saying universities,

quote, have become places of censure and

prohibition unquote that debate is still ongoing and at Missouri the

controversy started over the school's response to several racial incidents

and led to protests that forced the school's response to several racial incidents and led to protests that forced the

schools president and its chancellor to resign.

In this podcast, we'll be looking closely at the constitutional and not the political issues

involved in these two debates that have caught the nation's attention.

Joining me to discuss the issues are two terrific experts in constitutional law.

Erwin Schmerinsky is Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California Irvine School of Law.

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