On September 17th – exactly 235 years after the signing of the Constitution – we celebrate Constitution Day. Or at least some of us do. Constitution Day’s predecessor, “I am an American Day,” once drew crowds of people who enthusiastically celebrated with speeches and songs. Today, the holiday goes largely unnoticed. Others use it as an excuse to criticize our governing document – the longest-standing government document in the world.

Whether it’s because the document “limits democracy” or thwarts popular attempts to insert racial politics into the law, hatred of the Constitution is so widespread that the New York Times recently opined that the document is “dangerous,” “broken,” and “should not be reclaimed.” Who would have thought that universal and timeless principles like equality before the law, due process, civil liberties, and limited, enumerated powers could be so controversial?

Contrary to critics, the worst injustices in our country’s history have occurred when the government deviated from the original spirit of the Constitution. Consider Plessy v. Ferguson, Korematsu v. United States, and Buck v. Bell. Each of these cases is a stain on our country’s legal history, and each of them was the result of the Supreme Court deviating from the letter of the Constitution.

RARE COPY OF THE US CONSTITUTION FOUND IN OLD FILING CABINET, COMES UP FOR AUCTION

Plessy hardly needs summarizing; it is one of the most famous and reviled cases in history. Homer Plessy’s trial began after he was arrested for refusing to get out of a whites-only railroad car. He challenged Louisiana’s Separate Car Act, which required segregated railroad cars, arguing that it violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection principle.

Even 235 years later, the US Constitution is still valid. It only gets into trouble when judges deviate from its original intent. (spxChrome)

But the Supreme Court upheld Plessy’s conviction by an 8-1 vote, reinforcing the theory that segregation is synonymous. “Laws permitting or even requiring segregation,” wrote Justice Henry Brown, “do not necessarily imply the inferiority of one race to the other.” Only one justice dissented.

It took 58 years and the tireless efforts of civil rights heroes like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to overturn Plessy’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, where the court unanimously recognized what the Constitution had always required: “separateness is inherently unequal” and requires desegregation.

Korematsu v. United States represents another blatant injustice. After Pearl Harbor, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order that resulted in the internment of over 120,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. After Fred Korematsu was arrested and convicted for refusing to obey a deportation order, he challenged his conviction in court. But the Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt’s order because it was a “military necessity.”

Three justices dissented. In perhaps the most famous dissent, Justice Robert Jackson wrote that Korematsu was “convicted of an act not generally considered a crime. It consists merely in his being in the State of which he is a citizen, near the place where he was born and where he has spent his entire life.”

In another dissenting opinion, Justice Frank Murphy called the deportation orders “legalizing racism.” The Supreme Court did not officially correct its error until 2018, when Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Korematsu was badly wrong on decision day.”

Buck v. Bell is less well known but no less egregious. In this case, Carrie Buck was committed to a mental institution and forcibly sterilized at age 18. She was mentally the age of 9, but one of her doctors claimed she was a danger to society. In court, Buck’s lawyers argued that the law denied her a fair trial and equal protection.

CClick here for more opinions from Fox News

Buck lost in every court that heard her case, including the Supreme Court. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., writing for the majority, noted that the “feebleminded” Buck was the daughter of a “feebleminded” woman and the mother of a “feebleminded child.”

He rejected their constitutional arguments as contrary to the “public good.” According to Holmes, “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Unlike the previous two cases, Buck’s ruling was never officially overturned, although subsequent cases have weakened its force.

It took 58 years and the tireless efforts of civil rights heroes like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to overturn Plessy’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, where the court unanimously recognized what the Constitution had always required: “separateness is inherently unequal” and requires desegregation.

The critics are right – the Constitution is countermajoritarian; it limits democracy even when a majority seeks to sterilize people it deems weak. And yes, the Constitution abhors race-conscious government action – even when it is deemed harmless or essential to national security. But in hindsight, our country could have benefited from a firmer commitment to individual rights and a more skeptical attitude toward race-conscious legislation.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Constitution Day is a good time to recognize the virtues of the document. Those who complain that the Constitution “made President Trump” might consider all the ways it has limited his authority while he was in office. Those who carp about the Constitution’s protection of free speech should consider America’s disastrous past attempts to restrict unpopular speech and the way the Constitution works.

While the Constitution’s popularity may wax and wane, its meaning and importance remain the same. If the government seeks to punish people for being born with the “wrong” color of skin, or to deny them due process or basic civil rights, the Constitution will remain whether we celebrate it or not.