Your Weekly Constitutional

The Me Too movement has prompted sudden and dramatic changes in American society, most of them for the good. But does it also have a dark side?

We’ll hear from two professors, Michele Goodwin, of UC-Irvine, who recently wrote in the Huffington Post about her experiences trying to report sexual harassment as a young law professor, and KC Johnson, a historian from Brooklyn College, who is concerned about due process for the accused.

Among the best aspects of our relationship with Montpelier is that it gives us frequent contact with brilliant minds. Among the most brilliant is Jack Rakove, a Madison scholar at Stanford University and a member of Montpelier's Board.

Jack has published a new book, "A Politician Thinking: The Creative Mind of James Madison." Recently, he and Stewart sat down at the Potter Family Studios at Montpelier and talked about it.

Join us for a fascinating discussion.

The notorious Kelo decision was handed down more than a decade ago, giving states and localities broad powers of eminent domain. But states have, largely, turned their back on that power -- or claim to have done so.

We’ll speak with Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, who’ll bring us up to date on whether the government might take our homes and give them to someone else.

We’ll also speak to Patrick Baker of the University of Tennessee at Martin, who will tell us about an emerging property issue that may implicate Kelo: what to do with the underground voids left over when coal and other fossil fuels are mined. Some states, it seems, want to take that property away, without compensation.

Join us!

The President, our Commander-in-Chief, has the ultimate authority over whether to use nuclear weapons. Lately, some people are wondering whether vesting so much power in one person is such a good idea.

We speak with Peter D. Feaver, a Duke professor who recently testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on this very subject. We also speak with Stephen I. Schwartz, the former Publisher and Executive Director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

There are many laws regulating advertising. But, wait – advertising is speech. Isn’t such speech protected by the First Amendment? How does the government get away with regulating it?

The government even regulates how people describe themselves, at least professionally. It's typically illegal, for example, to call yourself a doctor or a lawyer unless you've actually gone through some sort of licensing process. But, again, don't you have a right to describe yourself as you see fit?

Attorney Mary Lou Serafine thinks so. The State of Texas threatened to penalize her when she called herself a psychologist without obtaining a Texas license to that effect. Law professor Tamara Piety disagrees. She thinks that there is room for regulation of commercial speech, including professional speech.

It's quite a debate. Join us!

In the constitutional sense, we mean. Everyone knows that it’s an island, but what is its status under U.S. law? And how did it obtain that status? And what happens next?

We speak with Professor Harry Franqui-Rivera, who teaches history at Bloomfield College.

After the tragedy in Charlottesville, many people are calling for limitations on “hate speech.” But, what, exactly, is hate speech? And can the government do anything about it?

Stewart speaks with two experts: Eugene Volokh, the creator of "The Volokh Conspiracy," a legal blog hosted by the Washington Post, and Richard Delgado, one of the founders of “critical race theory."

The Second Amendment protects our right to keep and bear arms. But what, exactly, does that mean? And has anything changed since the tragedy in Las Vegas?

Stewart speaks with historian Saul Cornell of Fordham University, an expert on the early history of the Constitution, and with Professor James Jacobs of New York University, who questions whether gun control can ever work.

Immigration is a very constitutional issue, as well a matter of great political debate. Sometimes, we forget that it is also a human issue.

Join us as Stewart speaks with three students at the Duncan School of Law at Lincoln Memorial University who came to this country at a very young age. Their stories are poignant, inspiring, and sometimes terrifying.

Each year, the Abraham Lincoln Institute for the Study of Leadership and Public Policy at Lincoln Memorial University hosts the R. Gerald McMurtry Memorial Lecture at LMU's Duncan School of Law.

This year, the topic was Reconstruction, and the focus was Tennessee. Our McMurtry Lecturer was Sam D. Elliott, a lawyer and Civil War historian from Chattanooga. Sam was joined by Professor Stewart Harris, who spoke about secession, and by Dr. Charles Hubbard, who described Abraham Lincoln's many ethical dilemmas.

Join Sam, Charlie, and Stewart as they re-cap and discuss their presentations.