HLS Honors Constitution Day

While most would list Columbus Day as the closest fall holiday, a select number of students and faculty at Harvard Law School yesterday were already celebrating a different historical event—the 226th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

Ignored by most calendars and barely acknowledged on the White House website, Constitution Day was established in 2004. In accordance with the bill’s stipulation that all schools with federal funding offer educational programming about the document on Sept. 17, HLS professor Michael J. Klarman gave a lecture Tuesday entitled “Not Written in Stone” to a packed audience in HLS’ Adams Hall.

Sponsored by HLS’ branch of the American Constitution Society, the talk focused on the complicated origins of the Constitution and the challenge of adapting the document to new political climates since its ratification.

Klarman, who specializes in constitutional law and history, first sought to dispel the notion that the founding fathers convened in Philadelphia out of an urgent desire for equality.

Instead, Klarman said, the framers were afraid of future popular unrest and thought the Constitution might maintain order. He also questioned whether the ratification process was truly democratic. “The framers often stifled robust debate about the Constitution and pushed quick ratification votes in the states,” he said. “Considering that the majority in many states, especially in the South, opposed ratification, there was a democratic deficit in this process.”

However, Klarman also suggested that despite the cumbersome process of making amendments, the founding fathers did not wish to design a Constitution set in stone for eternity. “I think almost all of them would have been shocked that 225 years later, we still basically have the same Constitution,” he said.

While the Constitution may not have changed considerably since its signing, Klarman did note that the Supreme Court’s reading of the Constitution has frequently been influenced by public opinion and that “the people of the United States decide the course of the country, and not the courts.”

This is the third Constitution Day lecture Klarman has given for the ACS. Sophia Kim, president of the HLS ACS chapter, emphasized the importance of civic education about the Constitution and provided free copies of the document to audience members. “Everyone should read the Constitution,” she said. “It’s incredibly important to know your rights and the underlying foundation of our government.”

While those in attendance became better versed in the Constitution’s history, many students had no idea Tuesday was a national holiday.

“Oh, really?” said Alexa M. Oord ’17 when told about Constitution Day. “Well, that’s cool.”