[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 86 (Thursday, May 3, 2018)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 19601-19602]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-09588]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 83 , No. 86 / Thursday, May 3, 2018 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 19601]]


                Proclamation 9732 of April 30, 2018

                
Law Day, U.S.A., 2018

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                On Law Day, we celebrate our Nation's heritage of 
                liberty, justice, and equality under the law. This 
                heritage is embodied most powerfully in our 
                Constitution, the longest surviving document of its 
                kind. The Constitution established a unique structure 
                of government that has ensured to our country the 
                blessings of liberty through law for nearly 229 years.

                The Framers of our Constitution created a government 
                with distinct and independent branches--the 
                Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial--because 
                they recognized the risks of concentrating power in one 
                authority. As James Madison wrote, ``the accumulation 
                of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, 
                in the same hands . . . may justly be pronounced the 
                very definition of tyranny.'' By separating the powers 
                of government into three co-equal branches and giving 
                each branch certain powers to check the others, the 
                Constitution provides a framework in which the rule of 
                law has flourished.

                The importance of the rule of law can be seen 
                throughout our Nation's history. This year marks the 
                150th anniversary of the ratification of the Fourteenth 
                Amendment to our Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment 
                prohibits States from denying persons the equal 
                protection of the laws or depriving them of life, 
                liberty, or property without due process of law. The 
                commitment to the rule of law that led the country to 
                ratify that Amendment was no less powerful than the 
                commitment to the rule of law that led the country to 
                ratify the original Constitution.

                That commitment to the rule of law lives on today. It 
                drives the debates we see around the country about the 
                growth of the administrative state and regulatory 
                authority, and about the unfortunate trend of district 
                court rulings that exceed traditional limits on the 
                judicial power. We also see that commitment in the 
                people's demand that their representatives comply with 
                the Constitution, and in the Representatives and 
                Senators themselves who take seriously their oaths to 
                support and defend the Constitution of the United 
                States.

                President Dwight D. Eisenhower first commemorated Law 
                Day in 1958 to celebrate our Nation's roots in the 
                principles of liberty and guaranteed fundamental rights 
                of individual citizens under the law. Law Day 
                recognizes that we govern ourselves in accordance with 
                the rule of law rather according to the whims of an 
                elite few or the dictates of collective will. Through 
                law, we have ensured liberty. We should not, and do 
                not, take that success for granted. On this 60th annual 
                observance of Law Day, let us rededicate ourselves to 
                the rule of law as the best means to secure, as the 
                Preamble to our Constitution so wisely states, ``the 
                Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the 
                United States of America, in accordance with Public Law 
                87-20, as amended, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2018, as 
                Law Day, U.S.A. I urge all Americans, including 
                government officials, to observe this day by reflecting 
                upon the importance of the rule of law in our Nation 
                and displaying the flag of the United States in support 
                of this national observance; and I especially urge the

[[Page 19602]]

                legal profession, the press, and the radio, television, 
                and media industries to promote and to participate in 
                the observance of this day.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                second.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2018-09588
Filed 5-2-18; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F8-P