Advances in Science and Technology Challenge Constitution's Principles

Abstract

A month ago, on Sept. 17, climaxing a year-long celebration of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, President Reagan and other officials gathered at Philadelphia's Independence Hall. Amidst floats, marching bands, banners, bells, and balloons, they commemorated the signing there of the Constitution by delegates to the Constitutional Convention, exactly 200 years earlier . Signing was not the final chapter in creation of the Constitution, however. Indeed, the bicentennial observance will continue over the next four years. It will commemorate the ratification of the Constitution in 1789, after a bitter struggle in several states. It will also commemorate adoption by the first Congress of the Bill of Rights, which went into effect on Dec. 15, 1791. Adoption of these first 10 amendments to the Constitution, protecting fundamental rights of citizens and limiting government powers, was set as a condition for ratification in several states . Just before Sept. 17—joining a flood tide of discussion and reexa...