Constitutional Scholar at Overby Center

Geoffrey R. Stone, one of the nation’s leading authorities on constitutional law, will be a guest next Monday (April 11) at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics for a conversation with Charles Overby, chairman of the center, about such issues as the value and importance of the First Amendment.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 10 a.m. in the Overby Center Auditorium on the Ole Miss campus.

Stone, who once held the position as dean of the University of Chicago Law School, is now the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service professor at the school. He is the author of many books on constitutional law, a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of major newspapers, and also writes columns for huffingtonpost.com.

For many years, Overby was CEO of the Freedom Forum, a Washington-based organization dedicated to upholding freedom of the press.

The Overby Center is co-sponsoring Stone’s visit to Ole Miss with the university’s law school, where he will be featured in other engagements.

During their conversation, the pair will discuss threats to basic freedoms that are supposed to be guaranteed by the First Amendment and touch on other current controversies. Stone has a reputation for being outspoken, and in an online column last month for Huffpost Politics he argued for the U.S. Senate to take up the nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court rather than block consideration of the case.

Noting that he had once personally preferred a nominee other than John Roberts to become the chief justice of the court, Stone at the time described Roberts as “a well-qualified, moderately-conservative” who nevertheless deserved consideration. He wrote then that the Senate “must fulfill its constitutional responsibility” to hold hearings on Roberts and to confirm him if determined that he was fully qualified.

Even though the Senate is today withholding any consideration of Garland, Stone said “that every principled and responsible member of the Senate” should be involved in the confirmation process.

Courtesy of Chi Kalu and the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics