Take the Constitution Seriously–Celebrate Constitution Day

When in October 2009 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was asked about the constitutionality of the individual health insurance mandate, her response was a question, twice asked, “Are you serious?” Are you serious?” Lest one think hers was a momentary lapse, Pelosi’s press secretary later reiterated the point by saying of the question about the provision’s constitutionality, “That is not a serious question.”

Madam Speaker, the question posed to you was a serious one. It is a question so serious, in fact, that it should be question at the beginning, middle, and end of any legislative debate. It should animate our public conversations, and it should motivate our national legislators to remember the oath they take upon assuming office. That oath, as follows, is itself serious about the Constitution:

“I, (name of Member), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

The original oath of office, adopted in 1789, was even more to the point: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm),” a member of Congress used to say, “that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”

In 1838, Abraham Lincoln, not yet 30 years old and still eight years away from his own election to the House of Representatives, said that the Constitution and “reverence for the laws” should “be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap–let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;– let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.”

In 2010, the Constitution is more likely to be left out of textbooks entirely, or treated so shabbily that it would be better if it were. The “living Constitution” is preached today, to be sure, but by making the document “living,” educators and legislators alike render it a dead letter. The Constitution, Frederick Douglass said, “is no vague, indefinite, floating unsubstantial, ideal something, colored according to any man’s fancy, now a weasel, now a whale, and now nothing.”

Now nothing. That is close to what the Constitution has become in our national debate. Or at least, until recently, that was the case. A citizen awakening, still growing, has meant that the question, “Is it constitutional?” is now met with greater seriousness–even if not yet by the House Speaker.

Article I, Section 8. Any questions?

This idea, which might seem too simplistic to some today, was of paramount importance to the founders of this country. The enumeration of Congress’s powers in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution defines what Congress can do. Section 9 delineates certain actions that it cannot do, like pass a law that takes effect ex post facto, or grant a title of nobility. Beyond that listing of congressional powers in Article I, Section 8, there was no other recourse for congressional action. No penumbras or emanations, or scholarly discoveries of an “invisible Constitution,” as purported by Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law School professor and official in the Obama administration, can change the simple fact that the Constitution sets the limits not just for congressional action but for the other two branches of government, as well. Again, Frederick Douglass: “The American Constitution is a written instrument full and complete in itself. No Court in America, no Congress, no President, can add a single word thereto, or take a single word therefrom.”

If the elected representatives of both parties are ever to take the Constitution seriously, citizens must do so first. We can accomplish this through study and reflection.

Constitution Day is Friday, September 17. On this day in 1787, 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution. As you reflect on what those delegates accomplished, take 20 minutes to read their handiwork. Consider the text of the Constitution in a book club. Share a copy of the Constitution with a young person. Throw a party to celebrate the Constitution.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you will also join Hillsdale College for our September 16-17 Constitution Day Colloquium, a program of panels, debates, and special presentations that is available as a free live webcast from Washington, D.C.

The Constitution was crafted by serious men who were serious about securing a free and prosperous future for the country they loved. We can never repay their devotion, but we can pay it respect by becoming serious about the Constitution they gave us.