McDaniel celebrates Constitution Day with talk on 13th and 14th amendments

In celebration of Constitution Day, Judge Stephen Sfekas will present “A New Birth of Freedom: The Origins and Meaning of the 13th and 14th Amendments” Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. on campus in McDaniel Lounge.

Passed at the end of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery, and the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States and guarantees equal protection and due process under the law.

“Together, the 13th and 14th amendments form the foundation of modern civil rights and civil liberties protections,” said Matthew Mongiello, a Political Science professor at McDaniel.

A former assistant attorney general representing Maryland’s department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Sfekas was appointed an associate judge of the Eighth Circuit Court for Baltimore City by Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2010 and retired from the bench Feb. 11, 2017. He has served as a co-chair of the Governor’s Transition Work Group on Disabilities, a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Joseph Young and an attorney in private practice.

Sfekas has taught health care law at the University of Baltimore Law School for 15 years. He earned both undergraduate and master’s degrees from Yale University and graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center.

In 2005, the nation began celebrating Constitution Day and Citizenship Day in honor of Sept. 17, 1787, the day 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution.