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Civic Observance
Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Monday, October 12, 2026
Congress made Columbus Day a federal holiday in 1934, and the 1968 Monday law set it to the second Monday of October. Federal law still lists that date as Columbus Day (5 U.S.C. § 6103).
Many states and cities also observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day on or near this date, to recognize Native nations and the costs of colonization. Some jurisdictions use one name, some use both, and some use one officially and the other locally.
Constituents lists both names so you understand why your state calendar may differ from the federal list.
A Civic Field Guide
Forms of Government
The United States is a Constitutional Republic that uses democratic elections. Democracy, republic, oligarchy, monarchy, theocracy, and the rest — what they actually mean, where they showed up, and how those systems treated power.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
James Madison, Federalist No. 47 (1788)
When one person or group writes the laws, enforces them, and judges them, that's tyranny by definition. Separating the three branches exists to stop exactly that.
The Three Branches view shows what each branch is doing right now — Congress passing laws, the president issuing orders, the courts ruling. All three in one place.
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Road to Independence
Meet the founders and the battles that shaped a nation
