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RAPID CITY, S.D. (Sept. 13, 2012) – Constitution and Citizenship Week will be recognized at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology on Sept. 18. Rapid City attorney Patrick Duffy will speak to Professor John Dreyer’s political science classes at 11 a.m. in room 252 in the Electrical Engineering/Physics building on campus.
Duffy is being sponsored by the School of Mines Departments of Social Science and Humanities and the Division of Student Affairs. Duffy will address the daily impact of the Constitution on U.S. and South Dakota citizens. Members of the campus and the Rapid City community are invited.
Duffy graduated from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1987 and is a trial lawyer with 25 years of experience in Rapid City. His successful trial and litigation experience includes the largest securities verdict and longest environmental litigation in South Dakota history. He litigated ownership of the world’s largest Tyrannosaurus rex; tried two of the longest voting rights trials in U.S. history; and has a total of nine voting rights cases in South Dakota federal court with the ACLU Voting Rights Project. Prior to his current profession, he served in the U.S. Navy, was trained as a Russian linguist and worked as a stockbroker.
He was named S.D. Trial Lawyers’ Association “2006 Trial Lawyer of the Year;” S.D. ACLU “2007 Champion of Liberty” and 2009/2011 “High Plains Super Lawyer.”
Additionally in recognition of Constitution and Citizenship Week, the School of Mines Student Association and the College Republicans will sponsor a Voter Registration table in the Surbeck Center Hoven’s Hub from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Free Constitutions will be distributed.
A law establishing recognition of the Constitution was created in 2004. All publicly-funded educational institutions provide programming on the history of the American Constitution during this week in order to meet the requirements of the law.