Union University and the department of political science held the annual Constitution Day lecture on Friday, Sept. 17 in the Penick Academic Complex.
Sean Evans, chair of the department of political science, and Hunter Baker, associate professor of political science and dean of the college of arts and sciences, discussed “COVID and the Constitution,” a topic chosen based on the country’s current state and the constitutional struggles it faces.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has raised constitutional questions and challenges that I am guessing most of us weren’t really thinking about many years ago,” Evans said.
Evans and Baker discussed topics including vaccine mandates and whether they violate our civil liberties, whether states can prevent churches from meeting and whether governments can unilaterally shut down private businesses. The lecture was centered around the pandemic, how it could affect freedom and what the government has done during these unprecedented times.
“When we think about this inherent power of government, sometimes people act surprised that the government is so involved in the pandemic and making these dramatic moves,” Baker said.
Both professors emphasized that the concern of the people is always at the root of what the government is doing, even if it may seem overbearing.
“Public well-being is supreme law,” Evans said.
Baker emphasized a similar point, saying that the government is doing its job and is protecting the people from things they cannot handle alone.
“This is the fundamental purpose of the government: to protect against these kinds of threats. So although this may seem shocking for a lot of us that have never lived through this kind of thing, this is actually at the core of what the government does,” Baker said.
Evans and Baker continued to speak on specific topics and ended the lecture with an open discussion, where they took questions from student attendees.
Photo by Kristi Woody
