[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 242 (Wednesday, December 17, 2014)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 75415-75416]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-29722]



[[Page 75413]]

Vol. 79

Wednesday,

No. 242

December 17, 2014

Part III





The President





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Proclamation 9220--Bill of Rights Day, 2014
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  Federal Register / Vol. 79 , No. 242 / Wednesday, December 17, 2014 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

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                Proclamation 9220 of December 12, 2014

                
Bill of Rights Day, 2014

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                For more than two centuries, our Nation has been shaped 
                by courageous women and men who have dared to raise 
                their voices and work to safeguard the blessings of 
                liberty and justice. In the face of tyranny, early 
                patriots stood up against an empire and proclaimed the 
                independence of a new Nation, declaring that we are all 
                created equal, endowed by our Creator with unalienable 
                rights. To secure these rights, they fought a war and 
                enshrined these truths into our Constitution. The 
                product of a fierce debate and great compromise, our 
                founding charter was a remarkable yet imperfect 
                document. It provided the foundation for a society 
                built on freedom and democracy, but essential 
                questions--including those of race and gender--were 
                left unresolved. Yet before it was fully ratified, our 
                Founding Fathers began working to refine its text, an 
                early milestone in our unending journey to form a more 
                perfect Union.

                Ratified on December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights 
                secured our most fundamental freedoms. These first 10 
                Constitutional Amendments protect our rights to 
                protest, practice our faiths, and hold our Government 
                accountable. They guarantee justice under the law, 
                allow for the dissemination of new ideas, and create 
                the opportunity for those left out of our charter to 
                fight to expand its promise. In times of war and peace, 
                and through waves of depression and prosperity, these 
                tenets have not only endured, but they have 
                strengthened our Nation and served as an example to all 
                who seek freedom, fairness, equality, and dignity 
                around the world.

                On the anniversary of the Bill of Rights, we reflect on 
                the blessings of freedom we enjoy today, and we are 
                reminded that our work to foster a more free, more 
                fair, and more just society is never truly done. Guided 
                by these sacred principles, we continue striving to 
                make our country a place where our daughters' voices 
                are valued just as much as our sons'; where due process 
                of law is afforded to all people, regardless of skin 
                color; and where the individual liberties that we 
                cherish empower every American to pursue their dreams 
                and achieve their own full measure of happiness.

                Our fidelity to these timeless ideals binds us together 
                as a Nation. As we celebrate Bill of Rights Day, let us 
                recommit to the values that define us as a people and 
                continue our work to broaden democracy's reach by 
                strengthening the freedoms with which we have been 
                endowed.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States, do hereby proclaim December 15, 2014, as 
                Bill of Rights Day. I call upon the people of the 
                United States to mark this observance with appropriate 
                ceremonies and activities.

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                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
                ninth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2014-29722
Filed 12-16-14; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F5