Dickinson to Host Constitution Day Event: Citizenship and Immigration Law in American History
Amanda Frost and John E. Jones III '77, P'11.
The Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation
Former federal judge and Dickinson College President John E. Jones III '77, P'11 will welcome noted legal historian Amanda Frost of the University of Virginia for a wide-ranging conversation on how landmark cases and developments from American history have shaped several recent controversies in citizenship and immigration law. “Citizenship and Immigration Law in American History” will take place Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public. The lecture will also be livestreamed. This event marks Dickinson’s Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation.
Jones was named Dickinson’s 30th president in February 2022 after he retired in 2021 as chief judge of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania. He was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in July 2002. Jones has presided over several high-profile cases. In 2003, he struck down portions of Shippensburg University’s speech code on the basis that it violated the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee. In 2005, Jones presided over the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, after which he held that it was unconstitutional to teach intelligent design within a public-school science curriculum. In 2014, Jones resolved the matter of Whitewood v. Wolf by striking down as unconstitutional Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage. Jones appears frequently as a legal analyst and commentator in outlets including Business Insider, CNN.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the National Law Journal, among others.
Frost is the John A. Ewald Jr. Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. She writes and teaches in the fields of immigration and citizenship law, federal courts and jurisdiction and judicial ethics. Her scholarship has been cited by more than a dozen federal and state courts, and she has been invited to testify on the topics of her articles before both the U.S. House and Senate judiciary committees. Her most recent book, You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers (Beacon Press, 2021) was named as a “New & Noteworthy” book by The New York Times Book Review and was shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize. Her non-academic writing has been published in The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other outlets. Frost also authors the “Academic Round-up” column for SCOTUSblog.
The Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation is an annual event endowed through the generosity of its namesake, a former Dickinson trustee. The event celebrates the signing of the United States Constitution and commemorates Dickinson’s connection to that document, through John Dickinson’s participation as an original signer. Each year, the Clarke Forum invites prominent public figures to campus to speak on a contemporary issue related to the Constitution. Previous speakers have included Kenneth Starr, Ira Glasser, Lowell Weicker, Marjorie Rendell, Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Ibram X. Kendi.
This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the House Divided Project. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published September 13, 2023