Today on We the People, we’re sharing a conversation from a private event hosted by the National Constitution Center this May in Coral Gables, Florida, recorded with permission from the speakers. The question we asked of our panelists was, “Is the First Amendment Enough?” In today’s world of Twitter mobs, disinformation, and polarized media, should we be looking for a new standard when it comes to regulating speech—or not? Journalists Kimberly Atkins Stohr of The Boston Globe, David French of The Dispatch, Ali Velshi of MSNBC, and legal scholar Larry Kramer of the William Flora Hewlett Foundation join NCC president and CEO Jeffrey Rosen for the conversation.
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This episode was produced by Melody Rowell. Research was provided by Sam Desai, Colin Thibault, and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a senior opinion writer and columnist for Boston Globe Opinion. She is also the inaugural columnist for The Emancipator, a joint independent antiracist multimedia project from Globe Opinion and the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, and author of its newsletter Unbound. She is also an MSNBC contributor, and co-host of the Politicon podcast #SistersInLaw.
David French is a senior editor for The Dispatch, where he also co-hosts the weekly podcast Advisory Opinions. He is a columnist for Time and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. French is the author or co-author of several books, including his most recent book Divided We Fall. He has also served as a senior writer for the National Review, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and a lecturer at Cornell Law School.
Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi” at MSNBC and business correspondent with NBC News. He is the author of Gimme My Money Back and co-author of How to Speak Money. He has been honored with the National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting, and he has received three News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations. He is a trustee of the National Constitution Center.
Larry Kramer is president of the William Flora Hewlett Foundation since 2012. Before joining the foundation, he served as Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and dean of Stanford Law School. He has authored numerous books, including The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review, Judicial Supremacy and the End of Judicial Restraint, and Madison's Audience. He has served on the board of the National Constitution Center.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Read “America is Living James Madison’s Nightmare,” by Jeffrey Rosen for The Atlantic, October 2018
- Read “Elon Musk is Right that Twitter Should Follow the First Amendment,” by Jeffrey Rosen for The Atlantic, May 2022
- Read “American Has a Free Speech Problem,” by The New York Times’ Editorial Board, March 2022
- Read “Practical Steps for Healthier Listening,” by Larry Kramer for Philanthropy Roundtable, October 2019
- Watch Ali Velshi on Real Time with Maher: “Is Twitter the New Town Square?” April 2022
- Read “Free Speech for Me but not for Thee,” by David French for The Atlantic, April 2022
- Listen to Kimberly Atkins Stohr on the #SistersInLaw podcast: “Kushner, Musk, and another police shooting,” April 2022
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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