[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONSTITUTION DAY 2009

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today marks the 222nd anniversary of the 
signing of the Constitution by the States that assembled in 
Philadelphia. The constitutional design of our three branches of 
Government has provided for collaboration in protecting this 
fundamental balance. Earlier this week, when I addressed the Chief 
Justice and the Judicial Conference of the United States, I noted the 
anniversary of the signing of our Constitution. This anniversary 
deserves more attention than it has received, and I was heartened to 
see that one of Vermont's great newspapers, The Caledonian-Record, also 
saw fit to note this anniversary in a recent editorial. The Caledonian-
Record noted, ``Our Constitution is timeless and the most relevant 
guide to continuing our freedoms. Millions of Americans have died in 
its defense. Celebrate it!''
  As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee I am constantly 
reminded of the Constitution's continued importance and relevance to 
our daily lives. From the first amendment, which protects newspapers 
like The Caledonian-Record, to the rights of Americans to vote, the 
Constitution is the cornerstone of our democracy. We all must remember 
how fortunate we are to enjoythe rights our Founders embedded in our 
guiding document.
  I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From The Caledonian-Record, Sept. 14, 2009]

             It's Constitution Week: Celebrate Our Freedoms

       Every year, America's newspapers celebrate the United 
     States Constitution by focusing on the document, with 
     features and editorials that acknowledge the central place in 
     America's freedoms that the Constitution possesses. We do it 
     to assure that Americans, in the rush of making a living, of 
     raising children, of growing up or growing old, and of all of 
     the other distractions of our lives, do not forget the vision 
     and the wisdom that almost miraculously guided our Founding 
     Fathers in composing this document. It is as important today, 
     indeed, probably more important, than it was in 18th century 
     America.
       This is Constitution Week. It is fitting that it should 
     immediately follow the national commemoration of the worst, 
     most deadly domestic terrorism attack in our history, Sept. 
     11, 2001. That attack, literally brought home that nowhere in 
     the world are freedom loving people safe from the militant 
     insanity of ideologically driven terrorists, in this case of 
     radical Islamists. In previous epochal events, they were 
     Nazis, Japanese imperialists, Marxists, and others. In every 
     case, the adjuration that arose from 9/11 applies, and never 
     more strongly than in reverence of the Constitution, ``Never 
     forget!''
       For the last 200-plus years, there have been, and are now, 
     those who would like to change our Constitution in ways that 
     occupy the whole continuum, from updating its grammar to 
     totally destroying it in the name of social action and the 
     progressive insistence that only the evolution of the present 
     to the future is relevant, that a document so old is a 
     totally irrelevant relic.
       Not so! Our Constitution is timeless and the most relevant 
     guide to continuing our freedoms. Millions of Americans have 
     died in its defense. Celebrate it!

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