Constitution Day holds debate of current issues

The Eastern Michigan University political science department observed Constitution Day Monday by holding a discussion focusing on the issues of healthcare, same-sex marriage, immigration and their relationship to the Constitution.

The discussion included a quiz of the audience’s knowledge of government, presentations of arguments surrounding key political issues and questions posed by the audience to a panel of Eastern Michigan’s political science professors.

The issues discussed by the panel of professors were among the most divisive and debated of today’s political climate. Before the professors’ presentations, the audience participated in an anonymous survey of opinions of current issues.

The results of the survey showed there was a small margin separating the sides of each issue and closely resembled the views of the American population.

The arguments presented by the professors not only dealt with the current situations surrounding the issues, but also focused on the historical context along with the future outlook for each issue.

Dr. Raymond Rosenfeld discussed the healthcare portion of the program and talked about the complexity of the reforms enacted by Congress this past March. Opponents have challenged the law on a Constitutional basis, but proponents of the law have defended it on Constitutional grounds as well.

Rosenfeld explained how the document could be interpreted a multitude of ways.

“The main issue is which part of the Constitution you hang your hat on,” he said.

When asked if the opposition to the reforms would dissipate in the future, Rosenfeld said, “Many of the provisions do not take effect for years. The public will adjust over time.”

“There was similar opposition to mandatory car insurance when it first became law. The reality is that the U.S. is the last major democratic state to adopt some sort of national health plan.”

Another member of the panel of professors was political science department head, Arnold Fleischmann, who spoke on the issue of same-sex marriage and described some of the efforts that have been made to prevent legislation and what can be done to change the current laws.

Fleischmann explained that the public’s attitude toward the issue is very divided based on age.
“There is a huge generational gap and in many ways public opinion is ahead of the current laws,” he said.

Professor Richard Stahler-Sholk addressed the audience on the issue of immigration and presented examples of similar periods of anti-immigrant sentiment in American history. He also discussed the obstacles that challenge immigration reform today including the Arizona immigration law that opponents have called an infringement on civil liberties.

Stahler-Sholk also discussed attempts of other states to adopt laws similar to that of Arizona, including one proposal in the Michigan state legislature.

Although the theme of this year’s observance of Constitution Day at EMU dealt with healthcare, immigration and same-sex marriage, there are certainly more issues that continually spark debates over whether or not they are constitutional.

When asked what other issues he expects to be prevalent, political science professor Jeffrey Bernstein said, “Civil liberties in relation to national security, the role of religion and the first amendment are and will continue to be major issues of further debate.”

It has been 223 years since the Constitution was adopted and as issues change, it is still the basis for arguments in American politics.

“Virtually every issue that is debated either has, is, or will be a major Constitutional issue and the short length and vagueness of our Constitution leaves a lot open to interpretation,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein explained the reality of the complexity of the debates when he said; “One suspects that if these were easy issues we would have solved them already.”