What is Constitution Day? 
Senator Robert
C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, in an attempt to increase public
awareness and knowledge of this vital and fundamental U.S. government
document, proposed the Constitution Day legislation. Congress, in
December 2004, passed this law to commemorate the September 17,
1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution by the delegates to the Constitutional
Convention held in Philadelphia. The law requires that all educational
institutions receiving federal funding provide an educational program
on the U.S. Constitution on September 17 of each year.
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005,
Public Law 108-447. The Constitution Day provisions appear at 118
Stat. 2809, 3344-45 (Section 111). The PDF
version of this lengthy public law is available through GPO
Access. The Constitution Day language is near the end of the law,
in Division J - Other Matters.
Constitution of the United States of America
The Constitution of the United States comprises the primary law
of the U.S. Federal Government, delineating the basic rights of
U.S. citizens and describing the structure of the Federal Government
and its jurisdictions. The Constitution of the United States is
the oldest written constitution in existence and is the landmark
legal document of the United States.
- Constitution of
the United States: Main page - GPO Access offers search and browse
features to the Congressional Research Service's Analysis and Interpretation
of the U.S. Constitution: Annotations of Cases Decided by the
Supreme Court of the United States, 1992 Edition Plus Supplements.
Text and PDF files of other Constitution publications printed by GPO,
including:
- U.S. Constitution with the Declaration of Independence
- The U.S. Constitution as Amended, with Unratified Amendments
& Analytical Index
- The Constitution of the United States and the Declaration
of Independence, Pocket Edition
- The National
Constitution Center provides an interactive consitution,
allowing one to explore the constitution by key word, topic or Supreme
Court case.
- The
Making of the U.S. Constitution - Transcription of the Introduction
and the U.S. Constitution
from the First Volume of the Annals of Congress
- United
States Constitution: Primary Documents in American History - This
Library of Congress web site provides easy access to primary source
material related to the drafting and ratification of the Constitution,
including:
- Elliot's
Debates - purported to be the "best source for materials about
the national government's transitional period between the closing
of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787 and the opening
of the First Federal Congress in March 1789."
- Farrand's
Records - documentary records of the Constitutional Convention.
- Yale Avalon
Project: The American Constitution - A Documentary Record - Yale
Law School provides html full-text of primary source documents ranging
in order in categories from the 'Roots of the Constitution' to 'Ratification
and Formation of the Government.'
America's Founding Fathers
Only 39 of the 55 Constitutional Convention delegates actually signed
the Constitution. For a biographical overview and index to the delegates
consult the National Archives and Records Administration's Founding
Fathers web page.
Questions & Answers
Excerpted from The Story of the Constitution by Sol Bloom,
Washington, DC : National Archives and Record Administration, 1986,
c1937, a long list of questions
and answers pertaining to the Constitution.
Supreme Court
Programming for Constitution Day 2006
- Justice
Learning - The New York Times Knowledge Network and NPR's award-winning
radio series Justice Talking, in cooperation with the National Archives
and Records Administration will broadcast two programs, online and
via satellite, for Constitution Day on September 16, 2005.
- Constitution
Day Resources - U. S. Courts Educational Outreach web page provides
resources designed to be used in the classroom and the courtroom to
support local Constitution Day activities.
- Celebrating
Constitution Day - CQ Press provides background references on
the Constitution; articles on constitutional issues from CQ Researcher
and a lesson plan to test your constitutional knowledge.
- Constitution
Day Resources from the Library of Congress - a compilation of
a variety of materials from across its collections.
Selected Bibliography
Amar, Akhil Reed. America’s Constitution: A Biography.
New York: Random House. 2005.
Location:
3rd floor, Call Number: KF4541 .A87 2005
Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story
of the Constitutional Convention, May
to September, 1787. Boston: Little, Brown.1986.
Location:
3rd floor, Call Number: JK146 .B75 1986
Breslin, Beau. The Communitarian Constitution. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press. 2004.
Location: 3rd floor,
Call No: K3165 .B74 2004
Farrand, Max. The Framing of the Constitution of the United States.
New Haven; London:Yale University
Press. 1913.
Location: 3rd floor, Call
Number: KF4541 .F3 1913
Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay and James Madison. The Federalist;
edited, with an introduction, reader’s
guide, constitutional cross-reference, index, and glossary by George
W. Carey and James McClellan.
Indianapolis, Ind. : Liberty Fund, 2001.
Location: 3rd floor, Call Number:
KF4515 .F4 2001
The
Federalist Papers (also known as The Federalist) - a series
of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James
Madison, between October 1787 and May 1788, and anonymously published
in various New York newspapers, urging New Yorkers to ratify the
proposed Constitution.
Monk, Linda R. The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the
Constitution. New York : Hyperion,
c2003.
Location: 3rd floor Call
Number: KF4550.Z9 M66 2003
Webcast
Linda R. Monk discussed her book at the Library of Congress.
EVENT
DATE: 04/14/2003
RUNNING
TIME: 33 minutes
A
More Perfect Union - Web version based on the Introduction by
Roger A. Bruns to A More Perfect
Union : The Creation of the United States Constitution. Washington,
DC : Published
for the National Archives and Records Administration by the National
Archives Trust Fund Board,
1986. 33 p.
Rakove, Jack N. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making
of the Constitution. New York:
A.A. Knopf, 1996.
Location: 3rd floor, Call
Number: KF4541 .R35 1996
St. John, Jeffrey; forward by Warren E. Burger. A Child of Fortune
: A Correspondent’s Report on the
Ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the Battle for a Bill of
Rights. Ottawa, Ill. : Jameson
Books. 1990.
Location: 3rd floor, Call
Number: KF4541.Z9 S7 1990
Van Doren, Carl. The Great Rehearsal: The Story of the Making
and Ratifying of the Constitution
of the United States. New York: Viking Press. 1948.
Location: 3rd floor, Call
Number: JK146 .V3 1948
Billings, Carol D. “Sources for the Study of the Constitutional Era:
A Bibliographical and Historiographical
Essay.” Law Library Journal, 81 (1989): 47–67.
Survey of primary sources and
historians’ interpretations of the constitutional period.
Available through Interlibrary
Loan.
Hall, Kermit. Comprehensive Bibliography of American Constitutional
and Legal History, 1896-1979.
Millwood, N.Y. : Kraus International Publications. 1984.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4541 .H34 1984
Kurland, Philip B. and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders' Constitution.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press. 1987.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4502 .F68 1987
Levy, Leonard W. and Kenneth L. Karst, eds. Encyclopedia of the
American Constitution. New York
: Macmillan Reference USA. 2000.
Location: Reference
Collection -- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4548 .E53 2000
McCarrick, Earlean M. U.S. Constitution : A Guide to Information
Sources. Detroit : Gale Research
Co. 1980.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4546.A1 M26 1980
Millett, Stephen M. Selected Bibliography of American Constitutional
History. Santa Barbara : Clio Books.
1975.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4546 .M54 1975
Newman, Roger K. The Constitution and its Amendments. New
York: Macmillan Reference USA.
1999.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4557 .C66 1999
Renstrom, Peter G. Constitutional Sourcebook. Santa Barbara:
ABC-CLIO. 1999.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4550.Z9 R463 1999
Urofsky, Melvin and Paul Finkelman. A March of Liberty: A Constitutional
History of the United States.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2002.
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4541 .U76 2002
Vile, John R. A Companion to the United States Constitution and
its Amendments. Westport, CT: Praeger.
2001
Location: Reference Collection
-- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4550 .V55 2001
Vile, John R. Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed
Amendments, and Amending
Issues, 1789-2002. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2003
Location: Reference
Collection -- 1st floor, Call Number: KF4557 .V555 2003
To locate more material in Scribner Library on the Constitution use
LUCY2.
Recommended LC Subject Headings Include:
United States. Constitution.
United States--Constitution.
Constitutional history--United States.
Constitutional law--Philosophy
Constitutional law--United States.
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