Free Speech Lecture Commemorates Constitution Day

09/04/2015 

SUNY Cortland’s Institute for Civic Engagement will commemorate Constitution Day on Thursday, Sept. 17, with a presentation by an expert on the Supreme Court and free speech.

Brandon Metroka, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, will offer a talk titled “The Roberts Court at Ten: Reconstituting Free Expression?” at 4:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. The talk is free and open to the public.

Metroka will address the ongoing debate concerning the Supreme Court’s record on freedom of speech and he also will examine several high-profile cases involving the court’s enforcement of the First Amendment. His talk also will explore the limits of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free expression as articulated by the modern court.

Constitution Day recognizes the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, as well as the rights of all citizens, whether they are born in the U.S. or have earned citizenship through the naturalization process.

Metroka has taught courses on government and free speech in America at both SUNY Oswego and Syracuse University. His dissertation, “Reconstituting Free Speech: Law and Politics at the Roberts Court,” evaluated the effects of ideology, judicial methodologies and legal doctrines on contemporary free expression decisions. Metroka also served in the U.S. Army National Guard, completing two combat tours in Iraq.

The Constitution Day talk is sponsored by the Institute for Civic Engagement.

For more information, contact Cynthia Guy, the community innovation coordinator for the Institute for Civic Engagement, at 607-753-4271.