[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 131, 115th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
Proclamation 9639 of September 15, 2017

Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, and Constitution Week, 2017

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

On the 230th anniversary of the Constitution of the United States, we
celebrate the enduring brilliance of our Founding Charter and recognize
all American citizens. Older than any other written constitution in use
today, our Constitution establishes a system of checks and balances
designed to preserve liberty, promote prosperity, and ensure the
security of our beloved country. On this day and during this week, we
recall the people and the principles that made our Nation great and
commit ourselves to restoring that greatness.
Our Constitution is founded on a fundamental trust in America's
citizens. ``We the People,'' the Constitution proclaims, are the source
of all governmental authority. We are, as President Lincoln declared in
the war-torn fields of Gettysburg, a ``Government of the People, by the
People, for the People.'' That is why we must be particularly mindful of
a would-be ruling class that has lost sight of this foundational truth.
In the drive for progressive reform, our Federal Government has grown
beyond belief and has layered regulation on top of burdensome
regulation. American citizens and businesses face an unrelenting
onslaught of rules and regulations adopted by an army of regulators
unaccountable to the citizens they seek to control.
My solemn promise as President is to return power to the American
People--to the workers and the warriors who made this Nation great and
will make it great again. Restoring this founding principle of ac

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countability requires us to once again respect the structural safeguards
of our great Constitution. The Framers of our Constitution sought to
preserve liberty by separating government power. In our constitutional
system, the Congress is charged with authoring and amending the laws, in
accordance with its beliefs about what will benefit our country. The
President's duty is to execute those laws and protect the Nation,
consistent with the Constitution. And the Judiciary's role is to
faithfully apply the Constitution and the laws to resolve specific cases
and controversies. Modern government, however, has rebelled against the
constraints inherent in these defined roles, abandoning that original
design in favor of a centralized system of out-of-control agencies that
claim independence from elected leaders and demand deference from the
courts.
On this day and during this week, I call on all citizens and all
branches of government to reflect on the original meaning of our
Constitution, and to recall the founding principles we too frequently
forget: Our government exists to preserve freedom and to serve its
citizens. We are accountable to the People. And the public deserves
clear, intelligible laws that are enacted through an open,
Constitutional process.
As the elected head of the Executive Branch, I call on Federal agencies
to reduce the crushing burdens of the regulatory state and to restore
fairness, transparency, and due process in all regulatory matters. We
are here to enable the greatness of our Nation, not to restrain it. I
call on the Congress to take up critical legislative measures, and to
work together to set free the full potential of our People. I call on
Federal judges to apply the law as it exists, not as they wish it to
be--to exercise, in the words of our Founders, ``neither force nor will,
but merely judgment.'' And I call on all American citizens to pursue
greatness in their lives through hard work and the insistence that their
government exists only by the people, and for the people, of this great
land.
The Congress, by joint resolution of February 29, 1952 (36 U.S.C. 106),
designated September 17 as ``Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,'' and
by joint resolution of August 2, 1956 (36 U.S.C. 108), requested that
the President proclaim the week beginning September 17 and ending
September 23 of each year as ``Constitution Week.''
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, 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 September 17, 2017, as
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and September 17, 2017, through
September 23, 2017, as Constitution Week. On this day and during this
week, we celebrate the citizens and the Constitution that has made
America the greatest Nation this world has ever known. In doing so, we
recommit ourselves to the enduring principles of the Constitution and
thereby ``secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity.''
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of
September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
second.
DONALD J. TRUMP