Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—A faculty member and director of the University of Mississippi School of Law’s Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center is the featured speaker for Mississippi State University’s Constitution Day program.

Assistant Professor of Law Cliff Johnson will share insight with students in MSU’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration during a Monday [Sept. 17] public presentation in Colvard Student Union’s third-floor Fowlkes Auditorium.

Titled “The Role of the Constitution in Everyday Life: Criminal Justice Issues in Mississippi,” Johnson’s 12:30 p.m. talk is part of the university’s Lamar Conerly Governance Lecture Series organized by the PSPA department, Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, and Pre-Law Society.

The lecture series is made possible by major support from Conerly, a 1971 MSU accounting/pre-law graduate and longtime partner in the Destin, Florida, law firm of Conerly, Bowman and Dykes LLP. He is both a former national MSU Alumni Association president and continuing College of Business Alumni Fellow.

Constitution Day celebrates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.  Federal law requires all publically funded educational institutions to recognize the occasion by offering programming on the Constitution’s history and principles. 

At the MacArthur Justice Center, Johnson oversees litigation efforts and provides instruction and supervision to students participating in the MacArthur Justice Clinic. He also is involved in a wide range of education and advocacy efforts addressing criminal justice reform in Mississippi, and has made more than 75 presentations at local and national conferences concerning criminal justice and civil rights topics. He was recognized as Public Justice National Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2016, Mississippi Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2017-18 by the Mississippi Association for Justice, and one of “Mississippi’s Leading Attorneys” by the Mississippi Business Journal in 2017.

Prior to joining the faculty at UM Law, Johnson practiced law in Mississippi for more than 20 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with high honors and special distinction from Mississippi College in 1989 and graduated with his Juris Doctorate from Columbia University’s School of Law in 1992.

For more information on Johnson’s lecture, contact Whit Waide, PSPA assistant clinical professor, at 662-325-7860 or WWaide@pspa.msstate.edu.

Learn more about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences at www.cas.msstate.edu; Department of Political Science and Public Administration, www.pspa.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.