College to Recognize Constitution Day

09/15/2014 

SUNY Cortland will commemorate Constitution Day and the birth of U.S. democracy on Wednesday, Sept. 17, with a talk led by a constitutional law expert who also serves on the College’s faculty.

Timothy Delaune, an assistant professor of political science and SUNY Cortland’s pre-law advisor, offers “The Constituting Constitution, and How to Reconstitute It” at 4:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. The event, which will look at the U.S. Constitution as a set of principles that define the nation, is free and open to the public.

Delaune

Delaune’s talk will address how the document is formally amended on its own terms, and it also will consider the constitutional convention amendment process as an avenue for democratic change — a method that has yet to be used.

Constitution Day recognizes the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, as well as the rights of all citizens, whether they are born in the U.S. or have earned citizenship through the naturalization process.

Delaune’s constitutional law expertise relates to legal traditions, political theory and international law. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Chicago Law School. He also studied at Tufts University and earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The Constitution Day talk is presented by the College’s Institute for Civic Engagement.

For more information, contact Cynthia Guy, the community innovation coordinator for the Institute for Civic Engagement, at 607-753-4271.