Coastal Carolina University will host its 11th annual Constitution Day celebration on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 6 p.m. in Edwards Recital Hall. The public is invited to attend this free event.

"Something Has Gone Seriously Awry: Eminent Domain and Property Rights Ten Years After Kelo vs. New London" is the topic of the address by Guy Burnett, assistant professor in the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at Hampden Sydney College in Virginia. He will discuss the issue of eminent domain and property rights, covering such questions as when does the government have the right to take private property for public use. The Kelo case was a controversial decision that sparked debate over eminent domain (a Fifth Amendment right) and property rights generally. Burnett has a book coming out on the Kelo case, to be published by Rowman & Littlefield.

"Burnett is one of the best of the young constitutional scholars to emerge on the scene. We are fortunate to have him here," said Paul Peterson, the event organizer and professor in CCU's Department of Politics and Geography.

Prior to Hampden Sydney, Burnett was on the University of Alaska, Anchorage faculty. He has lectured on American politics at Central Texas College and aboard the USS George Washington. He also volunteered and taught English at all levels in Siberia, Russia, where he lived for several years after high school.

Burnett's research focuses primarily on American law and the Constitution, executive power, the American Presidency, the American Founding, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates, law and biology, and law and the military.

He earned a Ph.D. in American politics and public law from Claremont Graduate University, a master's degree in American politics and public administration from the University of Utah and a bachelor's degree from Utah State University.

The Recital Hall is room 152 in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, located at 133 Chanticleer Drove E., Conway.