On Thursday, September 17th, more than 120 students, some in-person and some via Zoom, attended the department’s annual “Constitution Day” lecture hosted by Discourse in Democracy. The speaker, Dr. Mark Graber, is the Jacob A. France professor of Constitutionalism at the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law and is widely recognized as a leading scholar on American constitutionalism. His lecture, entitled “Disloyal Rebels and Loyal Unionists: The Fourteenth Amendment as a Whole,” concerned the origins of the Fourteenth Amendment and its place in American constitutional law. The following morning, Dr. Graber conducted a seminar on the 14th Amendment attended by more than three dozen political science students and faculty.
Mark Lottman, a political science graduate student, who attended the lecture described it as “engaging and informative” noting that it highlighted “the importance of continuing to work towards ensuring equality in American society by discussing the changes in both prior to and since the Civil War.” Another poli sci student, Jean-Marc Pruit noted that “Dr. Graber’s seminar on interpreting the 14th amendment was an enlightening, in-depth follow-up to his lecture” and involved “interesting discussions about originalist interpretations of the Constitution, Civil War and Reconstruction history, and American political development.”
The department’s Constitution Day activities were made possible by a generous grant from the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History. Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is an American federal observance recognizing the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become United States citizens by birth or naturalization.
A recording of the event can be viewed here.
