The U.S. Constitution was signed into effect on Sepember 17, 1787, which makes our country about 220 years old. Happy Birthday. :)

The Houston Chronicle reports that over half of high school students questioned had not heard of the day. I wouldn’t be as concerned that they know about the holiday so much as they knew about the Constitution and its original signing date.

Constitution Day was created by Congress in 2004. It was the brainchild of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who carries a copy of the Constitution in his pocket. The law requires any school and college receiving federal money to teach about the Constitution on or about Sept. 17.

I’m trying to decide where there is more irony: in Byrd’s sponsoring of the law, the failure of federally funded schools to follow such a simple requirement, or the fact that we have to legislate the learning of the guarantor of freedom.

There has been talk to add to each bill a statement that dictates by what clause of the Constitution that the law has authority. I think that’s a good idea, even if the Congressmen lie about it or believe in a expansionist view of the Commerce clause. Given the current Congress I’m not optimistic about its chances for passage.

Need a quick review? The National Archives has the text and the scanned copy.

“We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams