Jeremy Waldron is University Professor at the NYU School of Law. His books include The Harm in Hate Speech and, most recently, One Another’s Equals: The Basis of Human Equality. (June 2017)
Behind the First Amendment there is supposed to be a principle of free speech that applies to everyone in our society—a strong ethic that says we should never shut down the expression of controversial views just because of their content. The question is whether that ethic of free speech matters more or less on campus than it does in society generally.
The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era
by Akhil Reed Amar
The subtitle of Akhil Amar’s book, “Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era,” describes an interesting problem faced by a Constitution like ours. The Constitution has to be timeless, in the sense of straddling our history past and future, from its original framing in 1787 for as many centuries …
Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law
by David Cole
“The Constitution doesn’t mean what it used to mean”—when that’s our impression, our first impulse is to blame (or praise) activist judges. But the most feverishly activist judge cannot make any changes at all until a case comes before him or her. Judges don’t just wake up and say, “Let’s …
by Jürgen Habermas, translated from the German by Ciaran Cronin
Of the many voices raised in Europe against Angela Merkel’s and Wolfgang Schäuble’s handling of the debt crisis in Greece, one of the most strident and uncompromising has been that of the eighty-six-year-old German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Long regarded as Europe’s leading public intellectual, Habermas denounced the July 12 deal …
Why Nudge? The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism
by Cass R. Sunstein
Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas
by Cass R. Sunstein
Why do people get so angry at Cass Sunstein? Glenn Beck has called him “the most evil man, the most dangerous man in America.” What explains the hostility? Much of it is simple animus against big government, compounded by resentment of academics in office. But there is also a core of genuine worry, and I want to use Sunstein’s writings about nudging to try to bring that worry into focus.