We The People Podcasts

Justice John Paul Stevens' legacy and the implications of replacing him on the Supreme Court is the focus of this experts’ roundtable hosted by the National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The roundtable of Penn Law School experts includes Cary Coglianese, Deputy Dean and Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science; Seth Kreimer, Kenneth W. Gremmil Professor of Law; Deborah Pearlstein, Visiting Faculty Fellow and Lecturer and former clerk for Justice Stevens; Kermit Roosevelt, Professor of Law; and Theodore Ruger, Professor of Law. Michael A. Fitts, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, moderates. Program recorded on 5/6/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Justice John Paul Stevens' legacy and the implications of replacing him on the Supreme Court is the focus of this experts’ roundtable hosted by the National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The roundtable of Penn Law School experts includes Cary Coglianese, Deputy Dean and Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science; Seth Kreimer, Kenneth W. Gremmil Professor of Law; Deborah Pearlstein, Visiting Faculty Fellow and Lecturer and former clerk for Justice Stevens; Kermit Roosevelt, Professor of Law; and Theodore Ruger, Professor of Law. Michael A. Fitts, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, moderates. Program recorded on 5/6/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Rakove joins the National Constitution Center to discuss how the country came to be and why the idea of America endures. University of Pennsylvania Professor of History Richard Beeman moderates. Rakove tells the stories of the founders before they were fully formed leaders, as individuals whose lives were radically altered by the explosive events of the mid-1770s. Rakove uses little-known stories of these famous (and not so famous) men to capture--in a way no single biography ever could--the intensely creative period of the republic's founding. Program recorded on 5/11/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Rakove joins the National Constitution Center to discuss how the country came to be and why the idea of America endures. University of Pennsylvania Professor of History Richard Beeman moderates. Rakove tells the stories of the founders before they were fully formed leaders, as individuals whose lives were radically altered by the explosive events of the mid-1770s. Rakove uses little-known stories of these famous (and not so famous) men to capture--in a way no single biography ever could--the intensely creative period of the republic's founding. Program recorded on 5/11/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

The National Constitution Center presents a timely conversation with legal scholars Joyce Lee Malcolm and David A. Strauss about one of the most important and controversial cases before the Supreme Court in the 2010 term: the Chicago gun-rights case. At issue in McDonald v. Chicago is whether the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental constitutional privilege -- like freedom of speech, press and religion – that can be invoked by individuals against the actions of state and local governments as well as the federal government. As the briefs start coming to the Court for the case, a battle is brewing over the so-called "incorporation doctrine," which has applied most, but not all, guarantees of the federal Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The program is moderated by Lyle Denniston. Program recorded on 5/5/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

The National Constitution Center presents a timely conversation with legal scholars Joyce Lee Malcolm and David A. Strauss about one of the most important and controversial cases before the Supreme Court in the 2010 term: the Chicago gun-rights case. At issue in McDonald v. Chicago is whether the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental constitutional privilege -- like freedom of speech, press and religion – that can be invoked by individuals against the actions of state and local governments as well as the federal government. As the briefs start coming to the Court for the case, a battle is brewing over the so-called "incorporation doctrine," which has applied most, but not all, guarantees of the federal Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The program is moderated by Lyle Denniston. Program recorded on 5/5/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

The National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania Law School present Visiting Scholar A.E. Dick Howard, White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia School of Law, in a lecture on the emergence of global constitutionalism and whether universal norms--such as human rights--ought to apply to constitutions around the world or whether constitutions are ultimately contingent upon a nation's history, traditions, and culture. Program recorded on 4/29/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

The National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania Law School present Visiting Scholar A.E. Dick Howard, White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia School of Law, in a lecture on the emergence of global constitutionalism and whether universal norms--such as human rights--ought to apply to constitutions around the world or whether constitutions are ultimately contingent upon a nation's history, traditions, and culture. Program recorded on 4/29/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the First Amendment, joins the Center to discuss his book, Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century, and to explore the history of a free press in America. Bollinger also sheds light on the meaning of freedom of the press in our globalized, internet-dominated era. Bill Marimow, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, moderates. Program recorded on 4/21/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the First Amendment, joins the Center to discuss his book, Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century, and to explore the history of a free press in America. Bollinger also sheds light on the meaning of freedom of the press in our globalized, internet-dominated era. Bill Marimow, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, moderates. Program recorded on 4/21/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

On the two-year anniversary of then-Senator Barack Obama’s pivotal campaign speech, "A More Perfect Union," Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The PBS Newshour," Martin Luther King, III, Founding President and CEO of Realizing the Dream, Inc., and Dr. Thomas J. Sugrue, David Boies Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, joined the National Constitution Center for an open dialogue on race, moderated by Dr. Charles A. Williams III, assistant clinical professor and director of the Center for the Prevention of School-Aged Violence at Drexel University. Before joining the panel, Dr. Michael L. Lomax, President and CEO of UNCF (the United Negro College Fund), begins the conversation with a presentation proposing that education leads America’s racial priorities. Program recorded on 3/04/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

On the two-year anniversary of then-Senator Barack Obama’s pivotal campaign speech, "A More Perfect Union," Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The PBS Newshour," Martin Luther King, III, Founding President and CEO of Realizing the Dream, Inc., and Dr. Thomas J. Sugrue, David Boies Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, joined the National Constitution Center for an open dialogue on race, moderated by Dr. Charles A. Williams III, assistant clinical professor and director of the Center for the Prevention of School-Aged Violence at Drexel University. Before joining the panel, Dr. Michael L. Lomax, President and CEO of UNCF (the United Negro College Fund), begins the conversation with a presentation proposing that education leads America’s racial priorities. Program recorded on 3/04/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

The National Constitution Center presents Newsweek International's Maziar Bahari and Dr. Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University, in a conversation moderated by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Trudy Rubin about the growing unrest in Iran and the future of free speech and a free press in the Islamic Republic. This program was presented in conjunction with the Philadelphia Free Library's One Book, One Philadelphia initiative, which chose Marjane Satrapi's "The Complete Persepolis," a memoir of growing up as a girl in revolutionary Iran, as the 2010 featured selection. Program recorded on 3/04/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Yale Law School Professor Bruce Ackerman, former Army vice chief of staff General Jack Keane, and Brigadier General H. R. McMaster, join the Center for a timely conversation with moderator Terry Moran of ABC News about maintaining our constitutional balance in a protracted war. If we are indeed in an age of persistent conflict, can we maintain the Constitution’s prized balance of power, or must the executive, in a permanent state of emergency, have expanded power to act without significant participation by Congress or the courts? This program is presented as part of the 2010 Peter Jennings Conference for Journalists and the Constitution. Program recorded on 2/27/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org

Yale Law School Professor Bruce Ackerman, former Army vice chief of staff General Jack Keane, and Brigadier General H. R. McMaster, join the Center for a timely conversation with moderator Terry Moran of ABC News about maintaining our constitutional balance in a protracted war. If we are indeed in an age of persistent conflict, can we maintain the Constitution’s prized balance of power, or must the executive, in a permanent state of emergency, have expanded power to act without significant participation by Congress or the courts? This program is presented as part of the 2010 Peter Jennings Conference for Journalists and the Constitution. Program recorded on 2/27/10. Questions or comments? Write: programs@constitutioncenter.org