Michael Curtis is Judge Donald L. Smith Professor in Constitutional and Public Law at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He says the government can protect people from hate speech in public schools.

Timothy Johnson is Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-St. Paul. His books include, as co-author, Religious Institutions and Minor Parties in the United States. He wrote the entry on Roe v. Wade for the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics.

A story on President Bush’s proposal of $1.9 billion in aid to students affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Read the government’s past updates on its “Hurricane Help for Schools” program (the site is no longer updated past August 2006). Private schools and religious schools are eligible for aid.

Ilyse Hogue is president of the Proactive Policy Institute of NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.

Carol Tobias is political director of the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, D.C.

Ronda Rutledge is executive director of the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, Texas. She has supported reforming the commodity program and improving rural development and nutrition programs.

Kenneth Dierschke is president of the Texas Farm Bureau. See his April 5, 2012, post, “What is it about the Farm Bill that is so difficult?”

Sterling Brown is the Utah Farm Bureau Federation’s vice president for public policy.