In light of Congress’s designation of today, September 17, as “Constitution Day,” Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar and professor Jason Mazzone explain what this date celebrates and what it overlooks. Dean Amar and Professor Mazzone point out that while we should celebrate the drafters at the Philadelphia Convention, we should not disregard the imperfections in their work, or the ways in which Americans have worked to correct those imperfections.

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost, Associate Dean of the Faculty, and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College—comments on President Trump’s Fourth of July speeches, in which the President described a nation at war with itself and its legacy. Sarat points out the irony of Trump accusing others of lying about or attempting to erase the past, and he notes that Trump’s own distortion of historical facts is a tactic that authoritarian, fascist, and totalitarian regimes have used in the past to legitimize the regime or erase inconvenient truths.

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf comments on a recent Executive Order issued by President Trump calling for the creation of a “National Garden of American Heroes.” Dorf argues that we should recognize the Executive Order for the distraction that it mostly is and points out some of the Order’s fallacies, ambiguities, and inconsistencies.