Thursday was Constitution Day, celebrating the day in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia and Hopkinsville Community College held a lecture concerning the impact that document continues to have.
Commissioner for Kentucky’s Cabinet for Economic Development and former Representative for District 8 Jeff Taylor discussed the Constitution and how it affects the U.S. today. He says the power of state’s rights still plays a large role in the government, and one state’s laws often affect those around it as well.
He says Kentucky’s law concerning the removal voting rights for felons, including those who have served their sentence, is past time to be changed.
Taylor says that those lodged in prisons across the state are frequently used as very cheap labor, and that’s made possible through several laws, including the 13th amendment—he says the U.S. has the highest prison population in the world and a disproportionate amount are people of color.
Taylor discussed at length the ongoing Breonna Taylor case in Louisville and how no-knock warrants have no place in Kentucky law—a bill has already been filed by state Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers to do away with those types of warrants. Taylor says that even though events that happened long ago, such as the signing of the Constitution, amendments to that document and more, it continues to shape our nation