The IUS Civil Liberties Union hosted this year’s annual Constitution Day event on Sept. 15 in the IUS Library. The event included a panel of touted scholars and covered the topic of constitutional interpretation.
Sean Welch, president of the CLU, said he was pleased with the turnout of the event.

“I felt really good about the turnout,” Welch said. “It wasn’t quite as big a turnout as the spring event usually is, but it was a different kind of event.”

Several other student organizations co-sponsored the event, such as the College Democrats, College Republicans, the Gay Straight Alliance and the Student African-American Brotherhood.

The panel consisted of members including Jim Chen, dean of the University of Louisville law school, Lee Rimington Williams, school board attorney and constitutional law professor and Bryan Hall, assistant professor of philosophy.

Welch said the event took about two months to plan, with preliminary plans being made in late May.

“Every school that receives public money has to do something for Constitution Day,” Welch said. “We knew this was an important event for students to learn about the separation of church and state.”

Hunter Luthi, informatics senior and president of the GSA, said he felt great about the event, as well.

“My questions about the Defense of Marriage Act were answered pretty well,” Luthi said. “Dr. Chen gave a lot of insight on conservative and liberal issues.”

Thomas Kotulak, associate professor of political science, was moderator of the panel, said he thought the event was a great success.

“I was more than pleasantly surprised,” Kotulak said. “As soon as we opened it up for questions, people seemed very engaged. We had a great variety of questions as well.”

Williams also said he had a lot to say about the turnout.

“I was really surprised by the turnout,” Williams said.

By STEPHON MOORE

Staff

mooreso@imail.iu.edu