What's more "American" than the right to protest?

By Brittany Luse,

Corey Bridges, Neena Pathak, Barton Girdwood

Published March 14, 2025 at 9:48 AM EDT

Protestors take to the streets after the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.

Last weekend, former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities. The move was an escalation in the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent, and it has Brittany wondering: isn't this against the constitution?

Brittany is joined by Chenjerai Kumanyika, a journalism professor at NYU, and Rick Perlstein, a historian of conservatism. Together, they talk about America's love/hate relationship with the First Amendment, and what ICE's arrest of a lawful permanent resident could mean for America's culture of protest.

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Brittany Luse

Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.

Corey Bridges

Corey Bridges is an assistant producer at NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money. Bridges enjoys covering stories ranging from public policy to the economics of sports. At The Indicator, he has worked on stories about how certain environmental regulations can impede climate progress and others about how college athletes are taking advantage of their name, image and likeness.

Neena Pathak

Barton Girdwood