Constitution Day

On Friday, September 18, 2026, the American Founding Group and the School of Public and International Affairs will host a celebration of Constitution Day. The centerpiece of these festivities is a lecture by Richard Primus, Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

Prior to the lecture, the UGA Libraries will host “Constitution on the Quad,” featuring Constitutional trivia and student readings of the Constitution. In addition, historical documents and materials related to the American founding and U.S. Constitution will be displayed at the Special Collections Libraries from the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support of Constitution Day: UGA Special Collections Libraries

The content and opinions expressed during events hosted by the School of Public & International events do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Georgia or the University System of Georgia.

Constitution Day at UGA
Friday, September 18, 2026

1:30 PM | Trivia
2:00 PM | Lecture

Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries
Auditorium (Room 271)
300 S Hull St, Athens, GA 30605

For parking information, visit the Special Collections Libraries website.

Constitution Day Itinerary −+

1:30 pm

Special Collections Libraries Quad

Constitution on the Quad: Constitutional trivia and student readings of the Constitution

1:30 pm

Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Atrium

Display of historical documents and materials related to the American founding and U.S. Constitution provided by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

2:00 pm

Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Auditorium (271)

Keynote Lecture by Richard Primus, Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

What is Constitution Day? −+

Constitution Day is the annual celebration of the day that representatives to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia completed and signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The observance of this day began as “I am an American Day” in 1940 and later as Citizenship Day in 1952 when the celebration was moved to September 17 to commemorate the signing of the original document. Constitution Day as we observe it today was recognized as a federal holiday in 2004, when Senator Robert Byrd passed a bill designating September 17 as the day for citizens to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and to thoughtfully engage with the nation’s founding document.

About the Speaker −+

Richard Primus is the Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, where he teaches the law, theory, and history of the United States Constitution. He is also a senior editorial advisor for the Journal of American Constitutional History. Primus is the author of two books and many articles on constitutional law; his work has been published in the Harvard Law Review and the Yale Law Journal and been cited in opinions of U.S. Supreme Court Justices. In 2008, he won the first-ever Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies for his work on the relationship between history and constitutional interpretation.

Professor Primus is a proud graduate of John Adams High School in South Bend, Indiana. He holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from Harvard College; a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a J.D. from Yale. After law school, Primus clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and then practiced law at the firm of Jenner & Block before joining the faculty at Michigan.

Professor Primus is a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance and a member of the Board of Advisors of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to fighting threats to free and fair self-government. The students of Michigan Law have given him the L. Hart Wright Award—the school’s highest honor for outstanding teaching—on four separate occasions.

Accessibility −+

Access provided for people with disabilities. Contact Lauren Ledbetter at [email protected] by Wednesday, September 9, 2026 for specific requests.

Relevant Links −+

American Founding Group
Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Transcript of the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives
The National Constitution Center

Previous Constitution Day Events −+

2015
Jack Rakove, “What Did the Constitution Really Mean? Two Interpretations”

2016
Akhil Reed Amar, “The Constitution at a Crossroads”

2017
Michael J. Klarman, “The Constitution as a Coup Against Public Opinion”

2018
Carol Berkin, “Born in Crisis: The Emergence in the 1790s of an American Identity”

2019
Alan Taylor, “Competing Constitutions: North America, 1783-1795”

2020
Michael Zuckert, “The Consistency of James Madison: the Bill of Rights”

2021
Annette Gordon-Reed, “On Juneteenth: History, Memory, the Present and the Future”

2022
Sanford V. Levinson, “Reflections of a Would-be Framer”

2023
Mary Sarah Bilder, “The Framing Generation and Female Genius”

2024
Eric Nelson, “Of Kings and Presidents: Monarchy and the Framing of the Constitution”

2025
Mark Graber, “Are the Peasants Revolting: Insurrection, Legal Uprisings, and Presidential Power”

Declaration Day

Jan 2026

On January 23, 2026, SPIA hosted Declaration Day, a celebration the 250th anniversary of the creation and signing of the Declaration of Independence. The centerpiece of Declaration Day was an

Constitution Day

1:30 pm

Special Collections Libraries Quad

1:30 pm

Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Atrium

2:00 pm

Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Auditorium (271)

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