Ohio Northern University will observe Constitution Day with a panel discussion on “The Constitution and the Court: Health Care Mandates and Other Controversies” in the Dicke Forum on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at noon. The event is free and open to the public.

Tackling this timely issue will be Joanne Brant, ONU professor of law, and Phil Pucillo, visiting professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law.

Prior to joining the faculty at ONU, Brant practiced law in Cleveland with the firms of Thompson, Hine & Flory and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, where she specialized in labor and employment litigation. From 1986-87, she clerked for Chief Justice Pierce Lively of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Brant has served on the attorney general’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Advisory Council, served on the ABA site inspection team in 2000, and served as chair of the AALS Section on Law and Religion in 2001.

She was a visiting professor at Ohio State University in 2000 and at the University of Alabama in 2003. She teaches constitutional law, law and religion, federal courts, corporations, law and literature, employment discrimination, and legal ethics.

At Michigan State, Pucillo, who was recognized with the Distinguished Visiting Faculty Member Award from the Student Bar Association in 2012, has taught courses on administrative law, civil procedure, constitutional law and constitutional litigation, and property. Pucillo’s areas of scholarly interest include constitutional law and civil litigation in the federal courts.

Pucillo has served judicial clerkships at both the trial and appellate levels, including a clerkship with Judge Ronald Lee Gilman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. He has practiced as a litigation associate with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C. Before coming to Michigan State, Pucillo held teaching appointments at the University of North Carolina School of Law and Tulane University Law School.

The panel discussion is held in accordance with a federal mandate passed in 2004, which stipulates that every school and college that receives federal money must teach about the Constitution on or near the date of Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.