Sunday, April 2nd from 2-4 pm

(Presented by Citizen's Soapbox and RiseUPNY)

This Is Your Constitution is a brief overview of the Constitution, given by William Hellerstein, attorney and Garrison resident, and will include: 

• The Judicial Function and competing theories of constitutional interpretation
• National powers and local activities: commerce, taxing, spending, and war and foreign affairs powers
• Federal limits on state powers to regulate the local economy
• Separation of powers between Congress and the presidency
• The Bill of Rights and the States: substantive due process, the takings clause, the contract clause, procedural due process, equal protection
• Congressional power to enforce civil rights

In presenting each topic, the key cases involved will be discussed.

Mr. William Hellerstein graduated Brooklyn College in 1959 and Harvard Law School in 1962.  In his professional career, he served as Staff Counsel to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, specializing in employment discrimination in federal programs and voting rights denials in the South; Litigation Associate, Brennan, London and Buttenweiser, NY; Criminal Appeals Bureau of The Legal Aid Society of New York; Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Litigation at NYU Law School; Fulltime Professorship at Brooklyn Law School, Founder and Director of The Second Look Clinic--a non-DNA innocence project; and Counsel for pro bono matters, Proskauer Rose Law Firm. In addition Mr. Hellerstein has argued hundreds of cases in state and federal courts, including four successful appearances in the U.S. Supreme Court.  He is now retired and living in Garrison with his wife of more than 40 years, Michael Gage, who is a former Chief Judge of the New York Family Court.