Header Two

Constitution Day

What is Constitution Day?

Constitution Day is an American federal holiday that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. When Constitution Day falls on a weekend or on another holiday, schools and other institutions unofficially observe the holiday on an adjacent weekday. 

The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 and mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day. UW's goal for Constitution Day is to act as the catalyst for discussion about the U.S. Constitution on campus and around the state.

National Resources About the Constitution

Listen

  • Podcast: Founding Stories of America’s Founding Documents
    As we look forward to Constitution Day, this episode shares founding stories of America’s founding documents from three key periods: the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution, the nation’s founding era, and post-Civil War Reconstruction—sometimes referred to as the “second founding.”
  • Podcast: The Words That Made Us
    Preeminent legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School, host of the Amarica’s Constitution podcast, joins National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the big constitutional questions confronted by early Americans, as described in Amar's groundbreaking new book, The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840.
  • Podcast: The Founders’ Library
  • Podcast: Benjamin Franklin and the Constitution
  • Podcast: George Washington’s Constitutional Legacy

Read