[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14726-14727]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       OBSERVING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, tomorrow we will mark Constitution Day--a 
day set aside to reflect on our Nation's charter and how it has shaped 
what it means to be American. On September 17, 1787, George Washington, 
James Madison, and their fellow Framers made the momentous decision to 
sign the Constitution and send it along to the American people for 
ratification marking a new beginning in our Nation's profound 
experiment in democracy.
  As important as the original charter continues to be, the Founders 
did not design it to be immutable. One of its most notable features is 
article 5, which established the process for improvement in the form of 
constitutional amendments. This key provision rooted in both 
intellectual humility and constitutional faith--ensured that our 
Nation's constitutional journey would not conclude in Philadelphia in 
1787. Instead, it would continue to unfold in the decades and centuries 
that followed, tasking each generation of

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Americans with improving the charter in order to build ``a more perfect 
Union.''
  Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, our 
Constitution has been amended 17 times. These changes have helped to 
make the Constitution the revered document it is today. As I have noted 
on previous Constitution Days, Americans must celebrate not just the 
original Constitution of Washington, Madison, and the founding 
generation, but the whole Constitution, including its 27 amendments. 
This is all the more important as we approach a key set of 
anniversaries--the 150th anniversaries of the 13th, 14th, and 15th 
Amendments, which many scholars have rightly described as our nation's 
``Second Founding.''
  Ratified by President Lincoln and his generation after the Civil War, 
these Second Founding amendments transformed our original charter--
ending slavery, banning racial discrimination in voting, and elevating 
liberty and equality to a central place in our constitutional order. 
Perhaps most importantly, these amendments gave Congress the authority 
it needed to protect the civil rights of all Americans--authority that 
we have used to pass landmark civil rights laws such as the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965.
  Before our Nation marked the original Constitution's bicentennial in 
1987, Congress established a commission led by Chief Justice Burger to 
organize a national celebration. Americans from across the political 
spectrum came together in a spirit of unity and pride to honor the 
founding generation's profound achievements. With the 150th anniversary 
of the second founding, President Lincoln and his generation deserve 
the same.
  It is deeply saddening to me that the anniversary of the 13th, 14th, 
and 15th Amendments coincides not with such a celebration, however, but 
with what can be called nothing short of an attack on the principles of 
equality and liberty they protect. The Supreme Court's decision in 
Shelby County v. Holder and the wave of recent State laws undermining 
the right to vote demonstrate a dangerous erosion of these monumental 
Amendments that provide us the tools we need to build a fairer, freer, 
and more equal society.
  Tomorrow, as we celebrate the signing of our Constitution 227 years 
ago, I hope we also reflect on the unfinished work ahead that is 
necessary to live up to the core principles enshrined in our Nation's 
charter--including those of the second founding. The racial tensions 
exposed by the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO are not 
new, but they should serve as a clear reminder that our work is not 
done. I am heartened by the national dialogue that has been sparked by 
that young man's tragic death, and it is my sincere hope that we can 
harness that energy, directing it not toward greater distrust and 
divide but toward meeting the challenge to build ``a more perfect 
Union'' left to us by our Founders.

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