Talking about the Constitution
October 10, 2010
By Gregory Maynard
How does the United States Constitution affect our daily lives? That was the question addressed by panelists at a special Constitution Day event held recently in the Ellis White Lecture Hall of the Hammond building.
The event, titled “The Constitution at Work in Our Daily Lives,” was sponsored by the Student Government Association, the Office of Student Development, and departments of history, economics and political science. It featured four members of
government who described how the Constitution affects their day-to-day job requirements, and how it may affect the lives of students and faculty members personally, even if we don’t realize it at first.
“I really wanted to get students to understand that the Constitution isn’t just something you read in a textbook,” said Student Government Association President Eric Gregoire, who served as host for the event. “It’s a living thing.”
The panelists were Charles McLaughlin, former strategic military planner; Rafael Madan, general counsel in the Department of Justice; Michael Long, special assistant to the Speaker of the House; and Tom Netting, a lobbyist and consultant with the law firm Akerman Senterfitt.
The event began with the panelists introducing themselves and describing how the Constitution comes into play in their lives.
Madan told the audience that he was surprised at how many times his work had stepped into “Constitution-land.”
