In celebration of Constitution Day, Waynesburg University’s Stover Scholars will present “From Framers to Farmers: The Substantial Effect of Wheat upon the Constitution,” at noon on Thursday, Sept. 14, in the Goodwin Performing Arts Center.
Written by Stover Scholars Tyler McCoy, T.J. DeNofrio, Olivia Schultz-Falandes and Micah Stanko, the play dramatizes the 1942 Supreme Court case Wickard v. Filburn, which examined wheat farmer Roscoe Filburn's prosecution under the New Deal's Agricultural Adjustment Act for growing too much wheat for his family's own use.
The Court held that the U.S. Constitution's interstate Commerce Clause allowed the government to regulate wheat production that never left a farmer's farm. Because of the Supreme Court’s sweeping interpretation of the interstate Commerce Clause, Wickard v. Filburn has been described by constitutional historian James Barnes in the latest edition of the Journal of Supreme Court History as the “font of federal power.”
“The Stover Scholars have been working for months to write this drama, which raises important questions about constitutional interpretation and the role of the federal government in regulating economic affairs,” said Dr. Lawrence M. Stratton, Director of the Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership and Associate Professor of Ethics and Constitutional Law.
The play is directed by Waynesburg University Professor of Theater Edward L. Powers.
Admission is free, but tickets must be reserved in advance at Waynesburg.ticketleap.com/constitutionday2017.
Founded in 1849 by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Waynesburg University is located on a traditional campus in the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, with three additional sites located in the Pittsburgh region. The University is one of only 21 Bonner Scholar schools in the country, offering local, regional and international opportunities to touch the lives of others through service.
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Ashley Wise, Director of University Relations
724-852-7675 or awise@waynesburg.edu
