How to make every day Constitution Day

September 17 is Constitution Day, the anniversary of the 1787 signing by delegates to the Philadelphia Convention of the document that still governs us. This bulwark richly merits the ceremonies and civics lessons that mark the day. The Constitution, however, is not a museum piece. It is a living set of limits on government power, and the best way to honor it is to enforce it.

The gap between constitutional promise and daily reality is nowhere more urgent to close than in criminal justice, where government power is most concentrated, and the consequences of its abuse are most severe. Here are five places where it must close.

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That is not what the Framers had in mind. As has been proposed by a wide range of experts, including the Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Federal Priorities, Congress should audit the federal criminal code, repeal redundant and overbroad offenses, and return criminal law to its constitutional home in the states, where it belongs.

Restore the right to a jury trial

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. But that right has been functionally abolished. Today, 97% of federal convictions and roughly 95% of state convictions come through guilty pleas rather than trials. Many of those pleas are genuinely voluntary. Many are not. When prosecutors can threaten defendants who exercise their constitutional right to trial with a sentence five or 10 times longer than the plea offer, the choice between trial and plea is no choice at all.

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End civil asset forfeiture without conviction

The Fifth Amendment states that no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law. Yet civil asset forfeiture laws, created to fight organized crime and drug trafficking, allow government to seize – and keep – property suspected of involvement in a crime without ever charging, let alone convicting, its owner. The Institute for Justice has documented thousands of cases in which law enforcement took cash, cars, and homes from people who were never prosecuted. In many states, the proceeds flow directly back to the seizing agency, creating a perverse incentive for departments to police for profit rather than for public safety.

Fourteen states have required a criminal conviction before property can be forfeited. The rest should do the same, with common-sense exceptions for unclaimed property and property owned by foreign cartels. Congress should also close the federal equitable sharing loophole, which allows state agencies to circumvent stronger state laws by routing seizures through the federal government.

Guarantee open-file discovery and disclose AI-generated evidence

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Artificial intelligence has created an urgent new dimension of this problem. Law enforcement agencies are already using AI tools to analyze evidence, generate investigative leads, and write police reports. When AI systems modify, enhance, or generate evidence, defendants, judges, and juries need to know. The Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, chaired by former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, has warned that without clear guardrails, AI systems can threaten due process. Disclosure of AI involvement in evidence production should be mandatory, and courts should develop standards for evaluating AI-generated evidence before it is admitted.

Fund the right to counsel that Gideon promised

In another landmark case decided in 1963, Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel applies to all criminal defendants, including those who cannot afford a lawyer. But today, Gideon’s promise remains substantially unfulfilled.

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The Constitution does not enforce itself. Every one of these shortcomings has been visible for years, and most have been acknowledged by courts and commissions that, nonetheless, have not yet closed the gap, whether for want of resources, competing priorities, or a lack of political will. Constitution Day is a good occasion to remember that the document the Framers signed in Philadelphia was not merely an aspiration. It was a set of commands. We must honor it by delivering on its promise, not just on September 17, but every day the criminal justice system touches the lives of Americans.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

(*) Full article: https://www.wnd.com/2026/09/how-make-every-day-constitution-day/