Why Should Americans Commemorate Constitution Day?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is Constitution Day, a day commemorated every year on September 17. American patriots love and appreciate the U.S. Constitution. However, some of the people who appreciate the Constitution the most are those who have lived without it. One such person is Shima Baradaran Baughman, professor of law at Brigham Young University. She “studies the constitutional rights of defendants.” She also wonders why so many Americans “have an allergic reaction to celebrating the Constitution.” 

Baughman shared a personal experience that happened when she was a toddler sitting on her mother’s lap. Men came to other home and took her mother for the crime of “rising money for an organization that believed in free speech and freedom of religion.”

She was taken to a small, bare room where her “trial” lasted only minutes. A few men red the charges against her. She had no lawyer, no chance to present evidence, no jury of her peers. Her only option was to plead guilty.

She was sentenced on the spot to 10 years in prison with no appeals possible. She was then transported to the infamous Evin Prison, a place notorious for crushing the human spirit. She had no bed – only a dirty floor crammed so tightly with other political prisoners that she could only sleep on her side. Hygiene was nonexistent and despair hung in the air.

The most horrific part came at night, when she and the other women would lie awake, knowing that guards would select a random number of inmates to be executed by firing squad as an intimidation tactic. Imagine trying to rest, not knowing if your name would be called before dawn.

This was not justice. It was the brutal face of unchecked power, where a government endured little due process or opposition.

My mother was miraculously released two years later. But that experience seared into me the difference between  system ruled by humans and a system ruled by law. And that is why Constitution Day is not just symbolic for me; it is a celebration of the very principles that guard against the nightmare my mother and I once lived through.

In America, the Constitution was designed precisely to prevent such abuses. The founders, aware of the abuses of human ambition and corruption, built a system where power was never meant to rest unchecked in one person, one faction, or one council. By design, power is separated into three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial – each with the ability to check the other. No president can govern without some degree of consensus, no legislation should step beyond constitutional constraint and be enforced by a court, and no judge should rule outside the bounds of the law.

The Constitution does more than create structure, though; it enshrines rights that shield individuals from government abuse. Rights that my mother would have dearly benefited from when I was young. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government cannot silence speech, dictate religion, or invade the privacy of one’s home.

The Fourth Amendment has been interpreted to require that officers “knock and announce” their entry for an arrest, except in exigent circumstances. Other amendments ensure the accused have the right to counsel and a jury of their peers, that punishments are not cruel or arbitrary, and that the accused maintain the right to appeal in the courts. Contrast this with my mother’s “trial” in Iran: no lawyer, no witnesses, no jury, no hope for protections.

Baughman explained that she understands the fear that immigrants have – particularly undocumented ones – because “[her] own parents knew that fear.” She continued by explaining that her parents joined “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and were “undocumented for a time” while they applied for asylum, “terrified of returning to Iran and facing political and religious persecution.”

Baughman’s parents “were blessed to obtain legal status quickly, but it came at great cost: they surrendered all their land and possessions in Iran to pursue opportunity and freedom in America with nothing but hope.” She continued by explaining that her parents, after becoming “U.S. Citizens in 1999,” sponsored “many of their family members who left behind homes and successful careers in Iran in pursuit of U.S. constitutional protections.

My relatives who immigrated are grateful for the reliability of living under the rule of law: in America, an architect or engineer’s work ends in payment every time – back home, half the clients might never pay.

Here, property rights are also real; what you build and own is protected, not potentially seized by the government on a whim. And the American dream is still alive as education and entrepreneurship can move families forward in ways that are often impossible elsewhere. This is why, even with its imperfections, people across the world still yearn to come to America.

There is much more to Baughman’s paper that is interesting and that I recommend studying. She concludes her paper by describing why American students and all citizens should receive a constitutional education.

A Constitutional education does not require loyalty to a party, but to a framework that tempers power, protects rights, and secures liberty for all.

For someone who grew up in a system without those safeguards, the difference is a land people will risk losing everything to call home. And for every American it is a reason to celebrate a day set aside to honor it.

The Constitution does not benefit one party over another; nor is it the property of a faction – it is a covenant that protects us and those with whom we most deeply disagree. It remains our common inheritance, the shield of liberty that guards every American, no matter their conviction – promising that freedom and dignity are not granted by rulers but guaranteed by law and divinely appointed rights.

We honor the Constitution best by understanding and defending it – not only for ourselves, but for those like my cousin still waiting patiently in line to taste its promise.