SIU's annual Constitution Day program will hit on a hot topic.
This year's event will focus on equal justice and the constitution.
The featured speaker is Pete White, the founder and co-director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, which works to ensure human rights to housing, health and security are upheld in L.A.
SIU Law professor Steve Macias will be the program moderator. He says this will be an opportunity to hear how law enforcement deal with poverty and homeless issues in a large city like L.A. and in a rural area like Carbondale.
"So, I think he's going to explain how that interaction, the constitutional rights of people to be where they are, how that is affected by a large police force like that, and then hopefully, we can hear about that perspective from the local level, where police interaction may or may not be as tense as it is in L.A."
Macias says the local perspective will be discussed by adjunct professor James Chapman, who is co-founder of Carbondale's Center for Empowerment and Justice and founder of the Illinois Institute of Community Law and Affairs.
"Hopefully he'll be able to take the perspective that Mr. White will be talking about in a very large city like L.A., and explain how some of those issues affect a smaller area like Carbondale."
The Constitution Day event starts at 5 p.m. Thursday in the SIU Law School auditorium.
