Constitution Day will be marked by Tribe lecture

Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and a nationally recognized expert on constitutional law, will present a lecture open to all students and staff, titled “Remembering the Constitution’s Future: Anticipating the Roberts Legacy?” at noon Monday (Sept. 19) in Lowell Lecture Hall.

For those unable to attend the event in person, there will also be a live Webcast at http://video2.harvard.edu:8080/ramgen/broadcast/Constitution.rm.

The lecture, which takes place on the first day of undergraduate classes, commemorates Constitution Day, the annual celebration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, by the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. This year, in accordance with a bill signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 8, 2004 (public law 108-447), all educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution is the central instrument of government and the “supreme law of the land.” It is the oldest written Constitution in the world still in force. It outlines the structure and powers of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial) and the three levels of government (federal, state, local). The Constitution took effect in 1789 and has served as a model for the constitutions of numerous other nations. The original document, covering four pages, is housed in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.