The university commemorated the signing of the U.S. Constitution with a celebration of the successes of published student authors in the Robert C. Khayat Law Center Monday afternoon.
According to the law school’s senior associate dean, Jack Nowlin, the law school has held the commemoration for more than a decade.
“I’ve organized the event since 2010,” Nowlin said. “The university is very pleased to hold a Constitution Day commemoration event each year and the central administration has asked the law school to organize it.”
Nowlin said it is crucial for students to understand the depth of the Constitution and to abide by it.
“The Constitution is not just a historical document,” Nowlin said. “We continue to debate important constitutional issues in the courts every day. It is our highest law and the foundation of our freedom and prosperity as a nation.”
A panel of law students presented their recently published and forthcoming articles concerning various constitutional issues to an audience of faculty, students and community members.
Panelists Alexandra Bruce, Madison E. Coburn and Katherine M. Portner work as editors for the Mississippi Law Journal and have written pieces on controversial issues in constitutional law. Each spoke on both the meaning and importance of the U.S. Constitution and the complications surrounding it.
Bruce discussed free speech rights and how materials depicting animal cruelty should not be protected by the first amendment.
“We have to remember the importance of what is in the Constitution and uphold that,” Bruce said. “We can never steer too far away from it.”
Portner’s portion of the discussion outlined why the Heckler’s veto, which is described as the suppression of free speech by the government, should not be allowed in public high schools.
The speech highlighted the conflict between protecting students’ free speech as well as the right for school administrators to censor speech within school environments.
Coburn spoke on Fourth Amendment issues relating to the constitutional validity of a traffic stop based on misunderstanding.
According to Coburn, it is extremely important to hold this event to provide students and professors an opportunity to discuss issues that evolve each year concerning provisions of the Constitution.
“The commemoration gives students the chance to be a part of a conversation that is observing those differences and gives professors the opportunity to address those questions with a student,” Coburn said.
