One or Two Cheers (at least) for Constitution Day

Paul Finkelman

This is just a brief response to Sandy Levinson's post on Constitution. All of us in the "Constitution business" benefit from this law, so cheering the law can be seen as self-serving. But, that is only a minor issue. In the past few years I have given Constitution Day talks at a number of schools that have, as far as anyone knows, never before had sponsored any serous discussion about the Constitution, fundamental liberties, or the relationship between politics and the Constitution. Constitution day forces a shift in resources -- buildings, money, time. This is not a bad thing. Students and faculty get to think about the Constitution and hear arguments and discussions about all sorts of constitutional issues. This is surely a good thing. It is much like the Brandeis notion that the answer to bad speech is more speech; the answer to constitutional ignorance is more discussion of the constitution, not less. I gave a talk on civil liberties in war time at a school with a huge ROTC program. Many students -- future officers -- had never considered that torture might harm them if they are captured in warfare. They never considered that torture might actually be counter productive in securing intelligence, or that anti-war discussions might be good for our society. The students were stunned. No one had raised these issues before. There was no classroom venue (although there should be) where these issues could be discussed. And these students were not likely to go to a meeting to discuss the war or civil liberties. But, hundreds were in my lecture. They were "conscripts," because attendance was taken. I have had this experience every years since Constitution day began. I am sure Sandy has too. It would be better to have Constitution week, or maybe "constitution day" should be every semester instead of once a year. But, what we have now is a fine first step in encouraging discussion about how the Constitution affects our culture. So, one or two cheers for Senator Byrd and his law.

Paul Finkelman
Albany Law School
Posted 10:12 AM by Paul Finkelman [link]