Constitution Day

In service of Constitution Day 2018, the Jack Miller Center presents a forum for teachers and students to explore this year's theme: the First Amendment.

In 2004, Congress mandated that all federally-funded schools hold educational programs in observance of Constitution Day, September 17. Each year, the Jack Miller Center partners with professors and colleges to help fulfill this mandate, engaging students across the country in the role and meaning of the Constitution. We invite you to explore our online forum devoted to our Constitution Day Initiative’s theme for 2018, the First Amendment.

Constitution Day Events
Each year JMC's Constitution Day Initiative supports Constitution Day events on campuses around the country, enabling thousands of college students to examine constitutional questions with renowned experts and policy-makers. Students have participated in discussions on constitutional issues from 1787 to the present with eminent historians, political scientists, and legal scholars, as well as with public officials including US Supreme Court Justices.
See all Events
First Amendment Resources
Since its founding, the Jack Miller Center has promoted the rigorous study of the Constitution. To this end, last year we launched an online resource center devoted to the theme of the First Amendment's protection of speech and press. This year we are expanding our online resource center to address the history, law, and theory of the entire First Amendment. This center is designed to be useful to advanced high school students, college students, educators, and scholars alike.
Explore the First Amendment
A Constitution Day Conversation
This year, the Jack Miller Center presents its second annual online symposium: a series of essays by JMC fellows on this year’s theme, the First Amendment. Professor Mark David Hall of Louisiana State University argues in the lead essay that a recent Supreme Court decision concerning a baker's right to refuse service to a gay couple on religious grounds missed an important opportunity to stand up for religious liberty and freedom of speech. Other JMC fellows will respond to Hall's argument in the coming weeks.
See the Conversation in Progress

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

First Amendment to the Constitution
1789