[applause] ladies and gentlemen, welcome to freedom day. I am Jeffrey Rosen, the president of this wonderful institution, the National Constitution center, which is the only institution in america that brings together citizens of different perspectives to unite around this beautiful document of human freedom and unites us, the u. S. Constitution. [applause] freedom day is the highlight of our constitutional programming here at the National Constitution center. It was launched on april 13, 2013 to further our Inspiring Mission and to encourage citizens around the country to celebrate, educate themselves and debate the meaning of freedom. What a way to acknowledge the visionary founder of freedom day than the women who conceived of this great celebration and made it a permanent part of the Constitution Center, and bert libby. The first todays brought together the top leaders in america to debate the meaning of issues ranging from the future of religious freedom to the future of free speech. We were gathered for an extremely meaningful event. This years freedom day launches a new twoyear initiative that is going to be a centerpiece of the National Constitution centers work. It is a National Commission holiday madisonian constitution for all. And this important commission will ask, what would James Madison and the framers of the u. S. Const edition make of our current presidency, congress, media and how could we resurrect madisonian values of limited government and constitutional today. This important commission is contained at a time when there is great debate in america and around the world about the tension between populism and constitutionalism. James madison and the other framers were not populous. They studied failed democracies like greece and rome. They recognize that unchecked democracy can lead to mob rule and therefore they designed a mixed government that would limit government in order to preserve freedom. In several, madison has two crucial distinction. In a republic as opposed to a democracy, and First Citizen should never be able to directly instruct their representatives. The idea of treating representatives would not have been a madisonian visit. The second thing madison said is we need to distinguish between referenda in deliberative decisionmaking. In republic as opposed to a democracy, the important decisions are delegated to the peoples representative rather than taken on one off votes. So Brexit Wouldve been anathema to madison in that idea madison in that idea that weve designed the system of separation of powers and checks and balances and individual rights in order to promote liberation was crucial to the project. We know around the world there are new forces threatening the idea. New social Media Technologies are making it possible for citizens to express themselves in quake mob like places rather than to proliferation. Places like polarization and the self sorting of citizens and to filter bubbles and echo chambers challenging their reasoned deliberation that madison thought was necessary in the future of freedom. Theyre for the Constitution Center has convened a summit of the greatest minds in america from all four branches of government, the three branches in order to address this really Important National question. Im so glad youve taken the time to come to philadelphia, those of you here and many more of you watching us on cspan and on the aclu live feeds. We are going to launch this commission and bring you some of the greatest thinkers in america for each of these branches to ask this important question. What would they think and how can we resurrect madisonian values . For the next two years we will fan across america, holding symposia and Panel Discussion and podcasts and commissioning white papers and we will issue reports in two years convene again in philadelphia and propose some solutions that we hope will cast light on one of the crucial questions of our time here in america and around the world. What is so exciting about this project in addition to its importance, civic importance and constitutional importance is the remarkable bipartisan support we receive. I am thrilled to report that our commission is cochaired by an Extraordinary Group that includes our congressional visiting scholars here at the National Constitution center. Senator mike lee and chris coons in the senate and represented just in the mosh and zoe lofgren in the house, a Wonderful Group united by their love in our commission is also cochaired by two remarkable women that im about to introduce you to when we will have a conversation and they are odious, the president of the Federalist Society and the president of the American Constitution Society and libertarian lawyers organizations of america who have supported this amazing project. Its important, exciting and will have an incredible series of conversations. Before beginning, and i also want finally to think bill belanger who is here. He has generously provided seed money to start off this commission into promote reason deliberation, so committed to preserving madisonian values of compromise. Thank you very much to go unread. And now, lets begin, fasten your seatbelts and please join me in welcoming the cochaired the madisonian constitution draw commission, lee liberman otis. [applause] lee and caroline, it is such a thrill to have you both here in person. I need to tell you that the collaboration between the Federalist SocietyAmerican Constitution Society under the Visionary Leadership of lee and caroline has been to show to everything. The centerpiece of our initial Work Together in the interactive constitution, which many of you have heard about. But if you havent on cspan and around the country, go to the napster and download the interactive constitution. Go to Constitution Center. Org and find this thrilling tool for caroline and lee and their great organizations have nominated to write about every cause of the constitution describing what they agree about and what they disagree about. In addition to be an extraordinary subsidy of tool where you can lose so much, models, and the civil dialogue necessary for the future of democracy and law professor, i am thrilled and enlightened every time i sign on to this amazing and free tool you can find in the app store and learned friend is great tool. First of all, please join me in thanking lee and caroline. [applause] im so glad we are up and running on the next phase of our collaboration together, which is the great madisonian commission. Only, why is it important for americans to study what madison thought about the constitution and why its important today. Well, i think basically the constitution is premised on the notion that we can form a government as hamilton said. Based on reason and reflection and passion, but also set up in the tuition to do that and adherence to institutions in central to win the experiment is going to be a success, which hamilton knows that the beginning is an open question. It is not clear that this is a possibility to create a government based on recent inflection as opposed to a tradition hierarchy or Something Else. Government based on reason reflection, caroline, and also doted to the madisonian constitution although they sometimes disagree about its meaning. Whitey think its important to study what madison thought today . First, i want to thank you for having this event here at the National Constitution center. It is so important that the programming you put on of the events and exhibits that people can see here. I would say that we at acs, American Constitutional Society and the Federalist Society, we dont agree on a lot in terms of the Const Duchenne, but we do stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to the important work of educating the public about the constitution, ensuring that people are reading, thinking about how it came to be and anticipating the challenges that we face in the future, how the constitution will protect us or where it needs to change. These dialogues are incredibly important for the resilience of our democracy. I would also say im the daughter of an historian, so i also think it is really important to understand our own history in order to understand the future we are walking into. What did your dad teach . American history. [laughter] lee, i think all of us were surprised and blown away by the runaway success of this interactive constitution which has gotten 10 million hits 10 million hits the ap exams have adopted the centerpiece of the new American History and government curriculum working with com academy to bring it to schools across america has just been thrilling. Really a model for so many collaboration including debate stand across the country from d. C. And new york to San Francisco and chicago were board organizations nominate and educate americans about the constitution. Why do you think this collaboration is important and what do you think it will achieve . Well, i should also add my thanks of course to caroline for their brilliant leadership that you have been providing to this and the tuition and your tireless and energetic effort to organize these debates. Thank you very much for that. I guess that i think that it turns out that, you know, it is possible one big question i think about the constitution is to what extent does it have been meaning . One way to figure that out is by hearing both sides about, you know, peoples different views about what it provides. And these debates are a wonderful opportunity for people to do that and i think everybody, you know, including the debaters learn things from them about the Const Duchenne and then it enables them to make judgments not on the basis of what they would like the Const Duchenne to mean, but on the basis of arguments about what it actually means. And i think that it wont work. The constitution wont work if people are just deciding, you know, i really like this result and therefore im going to conclude the constitution says that. I think having a civil vigorous energetic discussion about what it actually says is in a sense central to the whole enterprise of having constitutional government. That is important to the values of bringing people together in facetoface discussions to hear unfamiliar argument and the importance of separating your political term constitutional views. Caroline, what do you think the virtue of the debate in person and online has been and why are they important . The debates have been fabulous. I highly commend to you that they are online and you can watch them. They touched on the most important constitutional issues we face as a nation and at least then having the ability to hear both sides is extraordinarily important and challenging ones own viewpoint, engaging with this profoundly important document. We had some really interesting ones. I think back to the last one which dealt with the possibility for Supreme Court justices. It was quite unique in that it actually had the debate was structured to have a one Federalist Society and one American Constitution Society on each side of the debate facing off against each other. The answer to these questions are the debate not always so clearcut about how it falls, liberal or conservative. Similarly, a lot of arguments about methodology to living constitutionalism and its also not so clearcut. You have some conservatives who believe in an evolving constitution. I think what they do is kind of a pin your notion of where people fall in a political spectrum in the process of looking at the constitution and thinking about how we should read this document. How do we extract meaning from it and how do we apply it as law . Seeing that apply to a current debate, something we are facing in the political system in their own personalized and thinking these things are connected, constitution has this deep and important substantive basis for so much of what we do and i think why the work of the National Constitution center so important in the Federalist Society along with the American Constitutional Society is to keep reminding people that the constitution actually has force and that it has meaning that is actually real as its applied to peoples lives. That is dutiful, too. The constitution is real and has meaning. This is meaningful, ladies and gentlemen. We are told with them in a society where conservatives and liberals can even have discussions and here you have the leaders of the two main lawyers organizations in america collaborating beautifully, and the constitution than really converging about the fact that the nations this collaboration is the most important thing we are doing and im so thrilled you are sharing this commission and people will do beautiful things in america. Please join me in thanking all the and caroline. [applause] it was beautiful. Rate, thank you so much. Okay, we are now going to jump right into her first panel involving the media. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an Extraordinary Group you are about to hear from. These leaders of journalism, well, we have with us Mark Thompson from the see how of the New York Times, gary rosen, editor of the saturday review of the wall street journal and author of a brilliant book about James Madison and data in a linzer come ahead of politics at nbc. Their participation started when mark came to the constitution senator center to discuss his brilliant new book called enough said, which is this discussion of how the degradation of broderick, which began during the classical period as a way of taming passions of the crowd may be inflaming it. I invited mark after this great discussion to join this commission. He agreed, to join this panel and youll hear from the top media leaders with one of the most urgent questions of our time, which is how can we preserve madisonian values of public reason in an era where they seem to be under siege. Please join me in welcoming Mark Thompson comment gary rosen and linzer. [applause] mark, you start this off with your beautiful book and just send me the epilogue which you have drafted for the new edition, which really takes on the question of populism versus the rule of law posts brexit imposed 2016 election. Theres so much to say about it, but if you could distill for the audience your amazing argument about how these Popular Forces receive not only in america, but around the world are threatening values and why. The first thing is in no way my day job of being a chief executive in the New York Times on the subject of a project i began four years ago, sort of when double donald trump, the two things kind of come together. Im now kind of living in the book. To say the obvious, we are seeing now to the important pillars of broader public life and support democracy, the media and the judicial system in both britain and america, particularly those coming under attack with populace regard, both Mainstream Media and to some extent the Legal Systems in our country as being problematic to believe and to the establishment and the phrase enemies of the people used by President Trump at the New York Times and other leaders in this country with the phrase enemies of the people used by the u. K. Daily mail to describe judges who suggest the parliament to decide whether or not the formal article, which begins the process of the u. K. Leaving the european union, whether that should be triggered and discussed in parliament. The reaction was the judges of the enemies of the people. So, there is more sharp and its a now attack on some of the structures in both of our countries, but certainly it is my understanding, im sure the weakest on the stage of James Madison central to madisons conception of how you think about government, which is absolutely other people, but not pray to sudden and extreme gestures by that people. Some of these structures are now it seems to me under attack. Crystallizes it perfectly. An elitist institution like the times and judiciary, enemy of the people and the sudden passions were people should be with the madisonian ideal. Gary rosen, youre a scholar of madison and have written a book about this thought. What is your response to marks framing between populism and constitutionalism and what would madison make of our media today . To stipulate from the start, madison would look at our media world today and consider it an absolute nightmare for constitutional democracy because madisons whole political project was to figure out ways to tame them direct passion, extreme expressions of interest. The federalist papers are all about the institutions that are meant to channel and refine all of these wild ideas and notions floating around in political life. I think of madison were to see your world today, we have all of these Incredible Technologies in which all of us use and apprec