Today@Sam Article
Constitution Day To Examine Modern Controversy With Founding Document
Sept. 6, 2016
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Over the past year, the United States Supreme Court has maintained its reputation for controversy as the internal politics of the court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the resulting occasional tied decision have continued to make headlines.
Five speakers will delve into issues related to the Supreme Court’s main charge—upholding the U.S. Constitution—on Wednesday (Sept. 14) and Thursday (Sept. 15) during Sam Houston State University’s annual Constitution Day celebration.
Activities will kick off at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, when New York Times-bestselling author and Lincoln Prize-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo will present a keynote address on “Lincoln The Constitutionalist.” The presentation will be in the Academic Building IV Olson Auditorium.
"Lincoln The Constitutionalist" will explore the major constitutional questions that confronted Lincoln as commander-in-chief during a long and bloody Civil War, including how the 16th president interpreted, understood and thought about the Constitution and, in the context of Lincoln’s affection for the Declaration of Independence, what his relationship was with the country’s other founding document.
The Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College and a non-resident fellow of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard, Guelzo is one of the nation’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
He is the author of more than a dozen books, including his 2013 tome “Gettysburg: The Last Invasion,” which, in addition to enjoying a berth on the New York Times bestseller list, won the Fletcher Pratt Award, the Richard Harwell Award, the inaugural Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize for Military Historical Writing, and an unprecedented third Lincoln Prize for the author.
In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed Guelzo to the National Council on the Humanities.
He has appeared on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; has held visiting appointments at Harvard and Princeton; has produced popular courses for The Teaching Company; and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the LA Times.
On Thursday, Constitution Day will continue with discussions of four constitutional issues, led by SHSU professors in Lowman Student Center Room 320.
First, assistant professor of history Benjamin Park will address “‘The Greatest Problem of Our Time:’ The Perils of Religious Liberty in 19th-Century America,” from 9:30-11 a.m.
“The Constitution was supposed to have enshrined religious liberty as a central feature of American life. Yet dealing with the proliferation of religious diversity was a constant problem in democratic culture,” Park said. “This presentation will look at how religious groups on the margins sought to claim their constitutional rights and, when that failed, aimed to create a new constitution of their own.”
At 11 a.m., criminal justice professor Mike Vaughn will address the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause in “Evolving Standards of Decency in Modern Society.”
Associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and philosophy professor Glenn Sanford will take on the Fourth Amendment from 12:30-2 p.m. in a talk that will address “Limits, Loopholes and the Loss of Privacy.”
Finally, associate professor of history and Constitution Day coordinator Thomas Cox will end the day’s presentations with a consideration on the “Differing Views of the Constitution” from 2-3:30 p.m.
“My presentation examines how different generations of scholars and ordinary Americans have interpreted the Constitution over the past two centuries,” Cox said. “From 19th-century expansionists who viewed the Constitution as a justification for westward expansion to 20th-century civil rights activists who fought for the promise of equality in the document, Americans have repeatedly expressed their goals in constitutional terms.
“This presentation examines the ways that American over time have invoked the Constitution to advance their causes.”
Each Constitution Day attendee will receive a copy of the “The Hip Guide to the United States Constitution,” a pocket sized copy of the Constitution with commentary on the history and meaning of the document.
The Constitution Day celebration is sponsored by the SHSU American Democracy Project, the departments of history and political science, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
For more information, contact Cox at 936.294.4804 or thc001@shsu.edu.
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