Despite the best intentions of the men and women Oklahomans elect to represent them at the State Capitol, they are working against a state government structure that by its very nature leads to dysfunction.

At least that’s the argument made by constitutional law scholar and law professor Andrew Spiropoulos, who is scheduled to speak at noon Wednesday at the monthly luncheon of Kingfisher County Republican Women at the Kingfisher County Farm Bureau meeting room.

Spiropoulos is the Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor of Constitutional Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law and director of the school’s Center for the Study of State Constitutional Law and Government.

He is a graduate of Carleton College and received a master’s in political science and law degree from the University of Chicago.

Before joining the OCU law faculty in 1991, Spiropoulos clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and practiced law with the Chicago firm of Gardner, Carton & Douglas.

From 2005 to 2006, he served as senior counselor to the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Spiropoulos has been a Heritage Foundation Salvatori Fellow, was the reporter of the Uniform Interstate Enforcement of Domestic-Violence Protection Orders Act, and is currently the Milton Friedman Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Spiropoulos writes and teaches in the fields of constitutional law, legislation, state and local government and political theory and his columns have appeared a number of times on the Times and Free Press editorial page.

At Wednesday’s KCRW meeting, he’ll discuss systemic problems with Oklahoma’s state government structure that undermine legislative efforts to make it more efficient and effective.

Permitting the constitution to be amended by direct vote of the people through the initiative petition process is one of the problems Spiropoulos will discuss.

The lunch meeting is open to the public at no charge for first-time guests. The cost for returning guests is $7, which includes a $2 donation for the KCRW Marie Cooper Scholarship fund.