University of Virginia School of Law dean Leslie Kendrick delivered BYU Law’s Constitution Day address, posing a seemingly simple question: “Why do we celebrate Constitution Day?” Tracing the holiday’s surprising history from local observances in the early 1900s, through “I Am an American Day” in 1940, to its Congressional designation in 2004, Kendrick showed that Constitution Day is far older and more layered than its twenty-two-year-old federal mandate suggests. Americans have long marked the anniversary of the Constitution’s signing with parades, naturalization ceremonies, and public recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Constitution's preamble. Across nearly a century of proclamations and observances, Americans have consistently used this day to articulate shared values including the rule of law and the tie between citizenship and commitment to upholding the Constitution. Kendrick observed that Constitution Day reflects what unites us, reminding law students, “You probably disagree wildly with everyone else here on at least one big issue,” but “you are here because you believe the law is worth studying and worth practicing.” In the same way, Americans are united by a collective commitment to a Constitution that we celebrate once a year but benefit from every day.
