As the folks at James Madison’s Montpelier and the University of Chicago Law School have noted, the average lifespan of most constitutions stands around seventeen years. This year marks the two hundred and twenty-seventh under our Constitution. Perhaps more timely than ever before are the words Coolidge uttered in 1922 in recognition of the immense achievement this founding document still embodies, “No concourse of men assembled to promote the art of government ever attained a position which this convention is entitled to hold in the estimation of the American people. Justly, since that day they have been termed the Fathers. The result was our Federal Constitution, since aptly described as the most remarkable document ever struck off by the hand of man at a given time.”

Happy Constitution Day!