Happy Constitution Day! The US Constitution is designed to realize and secure the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence through a system premised on the need to separate, check and balance power. The framers understood that “if men were angels no government would be necessary” and “if angels were to govern men neither internal nor external controls on government would be necessary.” The constitutional architecture has witnessed many perversions throughout recent history, including extraconstitutional assertions of authority by courts, the impotence of Congress, and the endurance of a permanent and too often unaccountable bureaucracy. But it still remains the best framework for self-government ever devised. As we celebrate 250 years of the American experiment (with 239 of those under the Constitution), we should work to usher in a constitutional renaissance that will restore that great document to its rightful place at the center of American civic life.