FARMINGTON— The University of Maine at Farmington commemorates Constitution Day 2011 with its fifth annual U.S. Supreme Court Preview and Review.

Presented by Jim Melcher, UMF associate professor of political science and adviser for the UMF pre-law program, the event features a docket of U.S. Supreme Court cases that discuss last term’s highlights and this term’s coming cases.

The event is free and open to the public, and will be presented from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, in Lincoln Auditorium, in UMF Roberts Learning Center.

Melcher will also examine the 14th amendment controversy that recently arose during the debt ceiling crisis.

Opinions on last term’s cases can be found at www.supremecourtus.gov.

Previously known as Citizenship Day, Constitution Day was created by Congress in 2004. This federal holiday was revised to recognize not only those who have become U.S. citizens, but also the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

In addition to renaming the holiday “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,” the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.

UMF’s Constitution Day event this year is sponsored by the UMF Provost’s Office and the UMF pre-law Program.