A noted National Public Radio commentator who is an expert in constitutional law will be the featured speaker for the 13th annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture On Academic and Intellectual Freedom, 4 p.m. Oct. 20 in Honigman Auditorium, Room 100 Hutchins Hall, Law School.

Georgetown University Law Center Professor David Cole will deliver the lecture, “Freedom and Terror: September 11th and the 21st Century Challenge.” His lecture will focus on the war on terrorism, the challenges it poses to a free society and the role academic freedom has to play in struggling for freedom during periods of crisis.

Cole litigates First Amendment and other constitutional issues as a volunteer staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has published in a variety of areas, including civil rights, criminal justice, constitutional law and law and literature. He is the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, a columnist for Legal Times and a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

A graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, he has litigated many First Amendment cases, including Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, which extended First Amendment protection to flagburning.

The annual lecture is named for three U-M faculty members—Chandler Davis, Clement Markert and Mark Nickerson—who in 1954 were called to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. All invoked constitutional rights and refused to answer questions about their political associations. The three were suspended from U-M, with subsequent hearings and committee actions resulting in the reinstatement of Markert and the dismissal of Davis and Nickerson.

Sponsored by the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund, American Association of University Professors-U-M Ann Arbor Chapter, Law School, Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Communications, Office of the Vice President and General Counsel, Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Fund of Michigan, ACLU of Michigan-Washtenaw Branch and ACLU of the University.