    [United States Statutes at Large, Volume 132, 115th Congress, 2nd Session]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    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.

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    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 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.
    DONALD J. TRUMP