First in the Nation: NH's 1776 Constitution to the Present

Six months before the national Declaration of Independence, NH inked its first Constitution. Join the Rudman Center and NH Humanities for a conversation on the NH Constitution’s enduring significance. Hear unique stories about NH’s bold break from the Crown, look through the lens of “originalism,” and see how NH’s frequent constitutional amendments allow today’s voters to share the pen with original drafters. 

Panelists include Lorianne Updike Schulzke, Visiting Associate Professor in Law at Yale Law School, and Robert F. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, Rutgers University of School of Law and Former Director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies.  The conversation will be moderated by Judge. N. William Delker, an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court.. 

When: February 19, 5:30 – 6:45 p.m.

 Where: UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, Room 282,

2 White Street, Concord, N.H. 

 This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register here by Feb. 18. 

Panelists

 Lorianne Updike Schulzke

Prof. Lorianne Updike Schulzke

Lorianne Updike Schulzke is a Visiting Associate Professor in Law at Yale Law School. She comes from the faculty of the Northern Illinois University College of Law, where she teaches constitutional history, public international law, professional responsibility, and Torts. She also taught Constitutional Law and Constitutional Negotiations as a visiting Associate Professor at Penn State Law. Her expertise lies in constitutional interpretation and comparison, with particular interest in U.S., early state, and the Middle East and North Africa region constitution-writing processes and the Supreme Court's use of history. She has been published by or has forthcoming articles in The University of Chicago Law Review, The International Journal of Constitutional Law, The Connecticut Law Review, The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law and The Columbia Journal of Race and Law. She has been cited by the Supreme Court and frequently files historical amicus briefs with students in appellate constitutional cases. 

 Updike Schulzke was previously a visiting fellow at Yale Law School (2018–20) and then the Olin Searle Fellow at the YLS Information Society Project (2020–21). She has taught in teaching fellowships or adjunct professorships at New England Law, Penn State, and Brigham Young University. Updike Schulzke also founded the first free online library of the U.S. Constitution’s historical sources,ConSource.org, or the Constitutional Sources Project. While president of Libertas Constitutional Consulting from 2010–2018, she advised the Libyan constitution-writing process and helped found the Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford), which now owns ConSource.

Robert F. Williams

Prof. Robert F. Williams

Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, Rutgers University of School of Law and Former Director, Center for State Constitutional Studies.  Professor Williams earned his B.A. cum laude in 1967 at Florida State University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.  He earned his J.D. with honors in 1969 at the University of Florida School of Law, where he was executive editor of the law review and a member of the Order of the Coif. Professor Williams also earned his LL.M. in 1971 at New York University School of Law, where he was a Ford Foundation Urban Law Fellow. In addition, he has been a Chamberlain Fellow at Columbia University Law School, where he earned an LL.M. in 1980. He is admitted to the bars of Florida, New Jersey and the United States Supreme Court. He has been the legislative advocacy director and executive director of Florida Legal Services, Inc.; an International Legal Center Fellow in Kabul, Afghanistan; and a reporter for the Florida Law Revision Council’s Landlord-Tenant Law Project. In addition, he served as a legislative assistant to Florida Senator D. Robert Graham; a staff attorney with Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc.; and a law clerk to Chief Judge T. Frank Hobson of the Florida Second District Court of Appeals. His books include The Law of American State Constitutions (2nd Ed. 2023); The New Jersey State Constitution (3d Ed. 2023) and State Constitutional Law, Cases and Materials (5th Edition, 2015). He is the coauthor, with Hetzel and Libonati, of Legislative Law and Statutory Interpretation:  Cases and Materials (Fourth Ed. 2008).  Among his articles are:  “Statutes as Sources of Law beyond Their Terms in Common Law Cases” (George Washington Law Review), “State Constitutional Law Processes” (William and Mary Law Review), “In the Supreme Court’s Shadow:  Legitimacy of State Rejection of Supreme Court Reasoning and Result” (South Carolina Law Review), “Equality Guarantees in State Constitutional Law” (Texas Law Review), “The State Constitutions of the Founding Decade:  Pennsylvania’s Radical 1776 Constitution and its Influence on American Constitutionalism” (Temple Law Review), and “In the Glare of the Supreme Court:  Continuing Methodology and Legitimacy Problems in Independent State Constitutional Rights Adjudication” (Notre Dame Law Review). 

Moderator: 

The Hon. N. William Delker

Judge N. William Delker

Judge N. William Delker is an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court. He was appointed in August 2011. He served as supervisory judge for the Rockingham County Superior Court from July 2014 until December 2019, when he transferred to Hillsborough Superior Court–North in Manchester to fill a vacancy. In April 2022, he was appointed supervisory judge of that court.

Judge Delker is an active member of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules, the Judicial Conduct Committee, the New Hampshire Lawyers Assistance Program Board of Trustees, the NHBA Leadership Academy, and the Superior Court Law Clerk Committee, which he chairs. He is also involved in civics education with area schools and teaches Remedies and State Constitutional Law as an adjunct professor at University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.

Prior to joining the bench, Judge Delker served as a senior assistant attorney general in the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, where he was a prosecutor for 13 years. During his tenure, he handled numerous high-profile homicide cases, including the capital murder prosecution of Michael Addison. He founded the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit, prosecuted white collar and public integrity crimes, and worked in the appellate unit. He also served as bureau chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau.

Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, Judge Delker was an associate at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston and a law clerk for New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Sherman Horton. He earned his JD, summa cum laude, from American University’s Washington College of Law and his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.