Carson-Newman to celebrate U.S. Constitution Monday

^{Stewart Harris, associate professor of law at the Appalachian School of Law}

Carson-Newman will celebrate the 226th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, in Thomas Recital Hall, located in Tarr Music Center.

C-N’s History, Political Science, and Sociology Department will sponsor “From Revolution to Constitution 1776-1788,” by Stewart Harris, associate professor of law at the Appalachian School of Law, located in Grundy, Virginia.

“We are pleased that our students will have the opportunity to hear from Professor Harris as he discusses what is arguably the most important two decades in our history,” said Dr. Kara Stooksbury, associate professor of political science. “We would not be here, or as we are, if the Constitution did not exist.”

Harris attended Princeton University, where he was selected for admission to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia. There, he won the Law School’s Edwin R. Keedy Moot Court championship.

Since 2001, Harris has been on the ASL faculty, where he teaches constitutional law and civil procedure. He has earned the institution’s Faculty Scholarship Award and has been recognized for teaching excellence several times. For the past several summers, he has also taught constitutional law at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

The professor hosts “Your Weekly Constitutional,” a public radio show he created for WETS (89.5 FM), the NPR affiliate in Johnson City. The show features lawyers, scholars, and activists discussing interesting and controversial issues in constitutional law.

Constitution Day has been observed at colleges and universities since 2004, when the late-Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) proposed it as an amendment to the Omnibus Spending Bill. The event celebrates the document that was signed in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787 by 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention.