On a Constitution Center podcast:
In cases concerning the First Amendment, two Supreme Court decisions were almost unanimously rendered last week. In one, Chief Justice John Roberts authored an 8-1 decision. Ramirez v. CollierThe Court decided to side with the death row inmate, who claimed that he was entitled to have any religious leader touch and audibly pray for him inside the execution chamber. In contrast, the other opinion was 9 to 0. Houston Community College v. WilsonThe Court in an opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled that a censure by a college board regarding a bill was not a violation of free speech rights.
First Amendment experts Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School and Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law join host Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the opinions’ impact on how we interpret and understand and religious freedom and freedom of speech in America.