Harvard To Honor Constitution

Columbus Day might be the first time this fall when sleepy students get to skip their 9 a.m. sections in celebration of the nation’s history, but tomorrow, campus patriots will be able to get an earlier federalist fix.

Classes will remain in session, but Harvard will celebrate Constitution Day on Sept. 20, following President Bush’s December 2004 law mandating that all schools receiving federal funding must provide an annual lesson on the founding document.

To honor the anniversary of the Sept. 17, 1787 signing of the Constitution, Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law Gerald L. Neuman will present a free lecture open to all students and staff, titled “The Constitution and Human Rights in the War on Terror,” tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Sanders Theatre, sponsored by the Provost’s office.

Neuman said he plans “to talk about the problem of rights of foreign nationals possibly in the U.S. or outside the U.S., including Guantanamo, the difficulty of resolving those issues, the light that the Constitution sheds on such questions, and the light that such questions shed on the Constitution.”

Such a talk has particular relevancy as the U.S. Senate debates legislation about the White House’s power to reinterpret a provision of the Geneva Convention regarding the trial of terrorists contained at Guantanamo.

Last year on Constitution Day, Loeb University Professor Laurence H. Tribe ’62 gave a talk on the future of the U.S. Supreme Court under Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. ’76. But the new holiday seems not to have reached the popular recognition of other civic holidays.

“My calendar, for example, does not refer to it,’ said Tyler, Jr. Professor of Constitutional Law Richard Fallon. “But I suppose it will have at least some effect in increasing awareness of constitutional history.”

Harvard Republican Club member Zachary V. Smith ’09 said such yearly speeches “could definitely attract students, if they could provide a venue...with people from both sides of the issue.”

“Coming from a public school, I know that my education is lacking in civics and government,” he said. “We do not get appropriate introduction to really appreciate the document. I definitely support the president’s initiative.”

—Staff writer Kristina M. Moore can be reached at moore2@fas.harvard.edu.