Princeton professor to address ‘Freedom of Thought and the Struggle to End Slavery’ at AC

Brad Heineman, The Daily Telegram
·3 min read
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ADRIAN — Adrian College will mark Constitution Day with an address Monday, Sept. 19, by a Princeton University politics professor.

Keith Whittington will speak on “Freedom of Thought and the Struggle to End Slavery” at noon at Knight Auditorium inside Valade Hall. The event is offered at no cost and is open to the public. Valade Hall is near the corner of South Madison and Williams streets.

Whittington, a news release from Adrian College said, is the chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance. He has been a Hoover Institution visiting fellow, John M. Olin Foundation faculty fellow, American Council of Learned Societies junior faculty fellow, National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement fellow, a visiting scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, and a visiting professor at the University of Texas School of Law, Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.

He is a member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences and served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a co-editor of the “New Essays on American Constitutional History” and the “Cambridge Studies on the American Constitution.” The release said he is currently completing “Constitutional Crises, Real and Imagined” and “The Idea of Democracy in America, from the American Revolution to the Gilded Age.”

“Professor Whittington is one of the leading constitutional scholars in the country,” Nathan Goetting, Adrian College’s Romney Institute director and professor of criminal justice and jurisprudence, said in the release. “As a leader of the Academic Freedom Alliance, a non-partisan organization of academics committed to protecting fearless, independent thought for all on college campuses, he’s been in the news quite often lately. I’m confident his address will inspire us to think of the Constitution in new, challenging ways. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.”

Constitution Day is recognized today, Sept. 17. It is a federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution. Its nickname is often referred to as Citizenship Day. The Constitutional Convention delegates signed the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, in Philadelphia.

Whittington is the co-editor of additional works including “Congress and the Constitution,” “The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics” and “Law and Politics: Critical Concepts in Political Science.”

He is the author of multiple publications, as well, the release said, including:

  • “Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present,” which won the Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize.

  • “Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech,” which won the PROSE Award for best book in education and the Heterodox Academy Award for Exceptional Scholarship.

  • “Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and Constitutional Meaning.”

  • “Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning, Original Intent and Judicial Review.”

  • “Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History,” which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award for best book in law and courts and the J. David Greenstone Award for best book in politics and history.

  • “Judicial Review and Constitutional Politics.”

  • “American Political Thought: Readings and Materials.”

Whittington is the co-author of “American Constitutionalism, vol. 1: Structures of Government” and “American Constitutionalism, vol. 2: Rights and Liberties,” which together won the Teaching and Mentoring Award for innovative instructional materials in law and courts, as well as, “American Constitutionalism: Powers, Rights and Liberties.”

Whittington’s work for a general audience has appeared in The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Reason and Lawfare, the release said. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracy and can be found on Twitter at @kewhittington. He is the host of The Academic Freedom Podcast.

He has been published widely on American constitutional theory, American political and constitutional history, the law and politics of impeachment, judicial politics, the presidency, and free speech, the release said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Princeton professor to give Constitution Day speech at Adrian College