University of Florida to host inaugural UF Constitution Day

September 15, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida will host the inaugural UF Constitution Day at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 in the Grand Reading Room in Smathers Library East.

Hosted by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Fredric G. Levin College of Law, the event is a roundtable discussion about the nation’s changing political, economic and social climate.

The UF community and the public are invited to attend or to watch it online at http://video.ufl.edu.

A distinguished panel of scholars, jurists and public officials will consider a range of topics that include changes that will pose the greatest challenges to the Constitution over the next several decades; how the U.S. Supreme Court will likely respond to those changes; elements of the Constitution that will receive the most attention as the court addresses those and other issues and how the changing composition of the court will condition the kinds of cases it hears and the decisions it makes.

The list of panelists include Levin College of Law professors Fletcher Baldwin, Sharon Rush and Christopher Slobogin; political science professors David Hedge and Sam Stafford; history professor Elizabeth Dale; state Reps. Ed Jennings, D-Gainesville, and Larry Cretul, R-Ocala; and U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle.

Pursuant to legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the U.S. Constitution in September of each year.