the next morning lieutenant you walked up to me and he said sasser. you know you all right you seem a little distressed a little agitated. no sir not all right. so i'm i'm pretty pissed off what we're what we're doing over your. piece who will give me your interpretation of what we're doing over here. and. how what we're trying to accomplish over here. i just looked at him most of the well said honestly feel that we're committing genocide. and he didn't like my answer and he stormed off towards the. ceo's vehicle. i knew it up point that my career was done i crossed the line and i knew i had to watch my back girl eyes so after that night i pretty much slept with my no i millimeter underneath my poncho liner within easy reach. bay in the dark the door to us. when i first came back from vietnam and back one thousand six to six i saw protesters out speaking. about i want to hear it i did believe it to get away from it i put in a ten forty nine to go back to vietnam because i was white that's our and we you wired. and i don't think it would have taken muc

. >> may name is hiram sasser i spent the better part of the decade of suing first amendment including religious liberty issues. the liberty institute like other organizations such as the aclu seeks to protect the rights of students to express what are sometimes unpopular views at school, even views that reflect particular religious sentiments. decades ago, the student fights were much different. they had students who wanted to protest the vietnam war and very military-friendly towns were wearing black arm bands to school and they had to take their case to the supreme court in order to ensure their right to the free speech. you had students in the south who were wearing freedom buttons to protest desegregation. not a very popular stand for them to take at the time and they had to take their place to the supreme court and ensure the right they had the right to wear the freedom buttons. and in the middle of world war ii there were two elementary school children who did not want to say the pledge of allegiance. they wanted to express their patriotism in other ways. they too won the right.

clegg of the center for equal opportunity, gregory eric at the university of california-davis, hiram sasser of the liberty institute and john geesman of chapman university. we asked the panel is, please take your seats. who again, given the timeframe we're in, we are going to asked each panelist to limit their comments to seven minutes. we had you written statements. we have reviewed them. they are part of the record. we will, there have to, have a 70 minute discussion that will take place among the panelists and the commissioners. and i remain our commissioners again to please keep your questions brief and simple. and not multiple. please, panelists, take your seats. >> coming up next, afl-cio president richard trumka talks about worker rights. >> no one succeeds in life by themselves. you must be willing to lean on others, to listen to others, and yes, love others. watch 2011 commencement speeches on c-span memorial day weekend, and search more than 800 past commencement addresses from politicians, activists, authors, presidents and other world leaders and more online at the peabody award