Hoya Staff Writer Tuesday, September 19, 2006 Lindsay Anderson/The Hoya Members of the Georgetown community gathered in Gonda Theater in the Davis Performing Arts Center last night to hear lawyers, politicians and others read the U.S. Constitution to mark Constitution Day.

Last night, the Davis Performing Arts Center threw open its doors for a performance – but the main attraction wasn’t a Timberlake Wertenbaker play or a poetry reading. It was the U.S. Constitution, the nation’s 7,500-word founding document, presented just the way the Founding Fathers intended, in a dramatic staged reading by lawmakers and other dignitaries. Georgetown has always played up its ties to the supreme law of the United States – the university was founded in 1789, the same year the nascent Constitution took effect. But yesterday, Georgetown took those efforts a step further when it partnered with the People for the American Way Foundation to organize the ceremony, which took place in the Gonda Theater. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) joined more than 30 other speakers to read the Constitution in its entirety, from the Preamble to the 27th Amendment. “Georgetown and the United States Constitution have grown up together . in this city,” University Provost James J. O’Donnell said during the ceremony. “In all those years, many of the sons and daughters of Georgetown have done their share . to keep that republic and preserve that Constitution.” Byrd opened the ceremony, which was in part inspired by a law he introduced in Congress last year that now requires universities nationwide to organize activities honoring the document on Constitution Day, Sept. 17. The requirement, which was included in a large appropriations bill passed by Congress in 2004, states that all schools receiving federal funding – including universities – must organize a non-specific presentation of the Constitution for students. The ceremony also featured readings by national pollster James Zogby, former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and former Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), the principal designer of both the 25th Amendment in 1965 and 26th Amendment in 1971. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) had planned to attend the ceremony as well, but had to return home after the death this weekend of his sister Patricia Kennedy, organizers said. “I think the Constitution is the basis of our government. Anything we can do to create interest in the population generally, the better off we are,” Bayh said after the ceremony. “You had a number of citizens involved in the public process who were able to participate and I consider it a privilege to be able to do so.” The People for the American Way Foundation approached Georgetown about co-organizing the event earlier this year, according to Ralph Neas, the foundation’s president and Chief Executive Officer, who also served as a reader. The group has held such Constitution readings six times since the mid-1990s at various universities across the country. Bobbie Handman, a senior vice president at People for the American Way and the principal organizer of the first Constitution readings, said that the programs reflected the group’s commitment to civil liberties and civic education. “Young people are in the audience and they come away with ideas that they will use for the rest of their lives, and that is so exciting to me,” Handman said. Neas agreed, saying that television and newspaper coverage of the event would help spread the foundation’s message beyond the campus. “We have done this over the years several times. And we are primarily a constitutional rights and constitutional liberties organization,” Neas said. “[We are] trying to help engender civic participation. We spend more time doing that than doing anything else.” The event came a year after Georgetown implemented new efforts to honor Constitution Day in compliance with the new federal law. Administrators last year passed out copies of the constitution at the Student Activities Commission Fair and opened a constitutional law class to the entire campus community.