On October 1, 2024, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions hosted Stephen Collis,
Clinical Professor of Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law; Director, Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center, UT Austin; Director, Law and Religion Clinic, UT Austin, and Keith Whittington,
David Boies Professor of Law, Yale Law School, for a discussion on "The Forgotten Responsibilities of First Amendment Freedoms."
Professors Steven T. Collis and Keith E. Whittington discussed Collis’s new book Habits of a Peacemaker and the responsibilities we each have in relation to First Amendment freedoms, particularly the freedom of speech.
Steven T. Collis is a law professor at the University of Texas—Austin, where he is the founding faculty director of the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center and its Law & Religion Clinic. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas, he was a research fellow in the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School. He is the author of four critically acclaimed books related to the First Amendment and regularly speaks to lay and academic audiences all over the globe. Reviewing his latest book, Habits of a Peacemaker, the American Library Association has said, “In this time of sharp political divides and overwhelming feedback, Collis is a much-needed voice of reason and compromise.”
Keith E. Whittington is the David Boies Professor at Yale Law School and the founding chair of the Academic Freedom Alliance and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the faculty director of the Center for the Study of Free Speech and Academic Freedom at Yale Law School. He works on American constitutional history, politics and law, and on American political thought. He is the author of You Can’t Teach That! The Battle over University Classrooms and Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech, among other works. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Texas at Austin and completed his Ph.D. in political science at Yale University.