Members of Congress Read U.S. Constitution on House Floor

Politics Jan 6, 2011 9:56 AM EDT

Members of the new Congress devoted a portion of their second day of the new term to reading the U.S. Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Read an annotated guide to the full text of the Constitution, via the NYT. The National Archives has more resources on the original document.

Thursday’s Morning Line has more on the specifics:

The founding document has never been read in full on the House floor. The reading is expected to take between one and two hours, and will not include parts of the original document that were later amended.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who proposed the idea, will lead the reading. Republican and Democratic leaders of the House will go next, followed by rank-and-file members on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“As the written expression of the consent of the American people gave to their government — a consent with restrictions and boundaries — the public reading of the Constitution will set the tone for the 112th Congress,” Goodlatte wrote in a statement.

As the reading of the Constitution continues Thursday, we’ll post the full event in sections.

Part 1 | Preview, including discussion over whether to read original or amended Constitution (added 11:55 a.m. ET)