SIU Carbondale to observe Constitution Day on Tuesday

September 16, 2024

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University Carbondale will again observe Constitution Day on Tuesday, Sept. 17, with special activities.

Walter Ray, Morris Library's political papers archivist with the Special Collections Research Center, will provide free pocket Constitutions to students from 1-3 p.m. Tuesday at Delyte's in Morris Library. Ray will be dressed as President Abraham Lincoln and be available to discuss various topics, including the state of the Civil War and habeas corpus - a constitutional right protecting people from unlawful and indefinite imprisonment - which Lincoln suspended in September 1862.

The Simmons Law School will have an informal, public conversation with Stan Cox, an associate professor of constitutional law, on the First Amendment from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Lesar Law Building, Room 164. The focus will be on the U.S. Supreme Court's treatment of the First Amendment's religion clauses and other topics in a Q&A format.

The law school will also have Constitution trivia questions on monitors in the law library and hand out free pocket copies of the Constitution as supplies last.

Constitution Day marks the anniversary of delegates to the Philadelphia Convention completing and signing the U.S. Constitution in 1787. All educational institutions that receive federal funding must annually deliver programs on the U.S. Constitution.