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101 Harv. L. Rev. 1 (1987-1988)
Reflections on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution

handle is hein.journals/hlr101 and id is 19 raw text is: HARVARD LAW REVIEW COMMENTARY REFLECTIONS ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION* Thurgood Marshall** The year 1987 marks the 2ooth anniversary of the United States Constitution. A Commission has been established to coordinate the celebration. The official meetings, essay contests, and festivities have begun. The planned commemoration will span three years, and I am told 1987 is dedicated to the memory of the Founders and the document they drafted in Philadelphia.' We are to recall the achievements of our Founders and the knowledge and experience that inspired the'm, the nature of the government they established, its origins, its char- acter, and its ends, and the rights and privileges of citizenship, as well as its attendant responsibilities.2 Like many anniversary celebrations, the plan for 1987 takes par- ticular events and holds them up as the source of all the very best that has followed. Patriotic feelings will surely swell, prompting proud proclamations of the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice shared by the framers and reflected in a written document now yel- lowed with age. This is unfortunate - not the patriotism itself, but the tendency for the celebration to oversimplify, and overlook the many other events that have been instrumental to our achievements as a nation. The focus of this celebration invites a complacent belief * Text of a speech delivered by Justice Thurgood Marshall at the Annual Seminar of the San Francisco Patent and Trademark Law Association in Maui, Hawaii, on May 6, 1987. Footnotes are as they appear in the original text of Justice Marshall's speech, except for changes made by the Harvard Law Review to conform citations to HARVARD LAW REVIEW ASSOCIATION, A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION (14th ed. I986). ** Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court. I COMMISSION ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, PREPARA- TION FOR A COMMEMORATION: FIRST FULL YEAR'S REPORT 6 (Sept. 1986). 2 COMMISSION ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, FIRST REPORT 6 (Sept. 17, 1985). NUMBER 1 VOLUME 101 NOVEMBER 1987

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