Our Constitutional Lawyer-In-Chief Speaks Out

President Obama, whom some may recall was the editor of the Harvard Law Review and a professor (or at least lecturer) of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, has applauded the University of Oklahoma’s expelling two students and disbanding their fraternity after fraternity members were captured on a video singing a racist song.

Many First Amendment scholars, such as Eugene Volokh of UCLA, and the ACLU of Oklahoma think the university’s actions are clearly unconstitutional. Since most prestigious law review editors and constitutional law professors have written law review articles or other scholarly publications, one might think it would be possible to take a look at what our Constitutional Lawyer-in-Chief has written in the past that might support his endorsement of a state agency engaging in punishing students based on their speech (or perhaps for holding views expressed in the words of a song they sang).

Let me know if you find any such scholarly pre-presidential article(s). As Politico noted in August 2008, after looking for candidate Obama’s legal writings, “[h]is name doesn’t appear on any legal scholarship.”

Say What?