Constitution Day 2022

On Friday, September 16, 2022, the American Founding Group and the School of Public and International Affairs hosted a celebration of Constitution Day. The centerpiece of these festivities was a lecture entitled “Reflections of a Would-be Framer” by Sanford V. Levinson, Professor of Government and W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School.

Prior to the lecture, the UGA Libraries hosted “Constitution on the Quad,” featuring Constitutional trivia and student readings of the Constitution. In addition, historical documents and materials related to the American founding and U.S. Constitution were displayed at the Chapel from the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Thank you to the following sponsors for their generous support of Constitution Day: Jack Miller Center, UGA School of Law, and the UGA Willson Center for Humanities and Arts

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Watch lecture recording »

Constitution Day Itinerary
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1:30 pm

North Campus Quad

Constitution on the Quad: Constitutional trivia and student readings of the Constitution

1:30 pm

UGA Chapel

Display of historical documents and materials related to the American founding and U.S. Constitution provided by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

2:00 pm

UGA Chapel

Keynote Lecture by entitled “Reflections of a Would-be Framer” by Sanford V. Levinson followed by a moderated question and answer session

What is Constitution Day?
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Constitution Day is the annual celebration of the day that representatives to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia completed and signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The observance of this day began as “I am an American Day” in 1940 and later as Citizenship Day in 1952 when the celebration was moved to September 17 to commemorate the signing of the original document. Constitution Day as we observe it today was recognized as a federal holiday in 2004, when Senator Robert Byrd passed a bill designating September 17 as the day for citizens to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and to thoughtfully engage with the nation’s founding document.

About the Speaker
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Sanford Levinson holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. Previously a member of the Department of Politics at Princeton University, he is also a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas. Levinson is the author of approximately 400 articles, book reviews, or commentaries in professional and popular journals–and a regular contributor to the popular blog Balkinization. He has also written six books and edited or co-edited nine books including a leading constitutional law casebook. Levinson received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2010.

Professor Levinson has been a visiting faculty member of the Boston University, Georgetown, Harvard, New York University, and Yale law schools in the United States and has taught abroad in programs of law in London; Paris; Jerusalem; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne, Australia. He was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1985-86 and a Member of the Ethics in the Professions Program at Harvard in 1991-92. He is also affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish Philosophy in Jerusalem. A member of the American Law Institute, Levinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is married to Cynthia Y. Levinson, a writer of children’s literature, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.