** 2024 Commencement Updates **

** 2024 Commencement Updates **

Constitution Day

Constitution Day

September 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. This day commemorates the September 17, 1787 signing of the United States Constitution.

Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world’s longest surviving written charger of the government. Its first three words – “We the People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve the citizens. For over two centuries, the Constitution has remained in force because its framers wisely separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the federal and state governments. Since 1789, the Constitution has evolved through amendments to meet the changing needs of a nation now profoundly different from the eighteenth-century world in which its creators lived.

To encourage all Americans to learn more about the Constitution, Congress established in 1956, Constitution Week, to begin each year on September 17, the date in 1787 when delegates to the Convention signed the Constitution.

America’s Founding Documents

From the National Archives website for the U.S. Constitution:

These three documents, known collectively as the Charters of Freedom, have secured the rights and the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding philosophy of the United States.

The Declaration of Independence on archives.gov.

The Constitution of the United States of America on archives.gov.

Explore the Constitution at Interactive Constitution. On this site, constitutional experts interact with each other to explore the Constitution’s history and what it means today. For each provision of the Constitution, scholars of different perspective discuss what they agree upon, and what they agree upon, and what they disagree about.

Estados Unidos de America: La Constitucion de 1787 (en espanol) on archives.gov.

The Founders Online

Explore thousands of documents from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.  https://founders.archives.gov/

The Bill of Rights on archives.gov.

Our Government

The Executive Branch
The Executive Branch
The White House

The Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch

The Judicial Branch
The Judicial Branch

Voting – Your Civic Duty

Learning about Elections & Voting

Registering to Vote

Volunteering & Contributing to Election Process