    [United States Statutes at Large, Volume 134, 116th Congress, 2nd Session]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    Proclamation 10077 of September 17, 2020
    Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, and Constitution Week, 2020
    By the President of the United States of America
    A Proclamation
    In the summer of 1787, fifty-five delegates from throughout the
    fledgling United States gathered at the Pennsylvania State House in
    Philadelphia, intent on erecting a government that would stand the test
    of time and protect hard-won freedoms secured during the Revolutionary
    War. Two hundred and thirty-three years later, the document they
    produced--our Constitution--remains the bedrock of our system of
    government, one rooted in equality under the law and an unyielding
    commitment to individual liberty. On this day and during this week, we
    celebrate our great founding charter as an enduring beacon of freedom
    and strive toward active citizenship in service of its ideals.
    With profound wisdom, the Framers of our Constitution divided political
    power among three separate and coequal branches, and further between the
    Federal and State governments, ensuring that a government of the people,
    by the people, and for the people would remain accountable to its
    citizens, from whom all legitimate political power is derived. Our
    Constitution outlines a government that encourages individuals to
    flourish while still empowering the state to perform necessary functions
    like protecting law and order and providing essential public goods. This
    revolutionary concept has made and continues to make our Nation the most
    free and just society in the world. Because its principles are timeless
    and rooted in truth, our Constitution has fostered freedom at home, as
    well as the liberation of countless oppressed peoples around the world.
    In the more than 2 centuries since its ratification, it has served as an
    unparalleled engine for human progress.
    A key feature of our Constitution is an independent Federal judiciary,
    which helps safeguard its structure and ensure individual rights. In
    Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton describes the proper role of the
    courts as keeping the legislature ``within the limits assigned to their
    authority,''; handing down decisions in accordance with the principle
    that ``a constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges,
    as a fundamental law.''; In reverence of the wisdom of the Founders, I
    have made it a top priority to nominate to the Federal bench only those
    judges who have demonstrated a commitment to enforcing the Constitution
    as written. To date, I have nominated and the Senate has confirmed more
    than 240 judges who will faithfully adhere to this foundational judicial
    principle, including two incredible Supreme Court Justices.
    While freedom-loving Americans rightfully venerate and defend our
    Constitution, we must also remain cognizant that there are those in our
    society who wish to tear down our institutions and threaten our sacred
    constitutional freedoms. In recent months, statues of great American
    heroes like Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt
    have been threatened, torn down, defaced, and destroyed. In cities
    throughout our country, radical groups have attacked monuments honoring
    the unrivaled contributions our Founding Fathers made to human freedom.
    These groups and individuals are attempting to topple

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    constitutional law and order--the very foundation of self-government--by
    attacking the Constitution and the integrity of our national heroes,
    falsely decrying our country and its institutions as evil and unjust.
    As President, I will never allow such heinous attacks to go unpunished.
    I will continue to honor the legacy of our history by protecting our
    freedoms and safeguarding our Constitution and the boundless opportunity
    it affords to the people of our great Nation. We should always celebrate
    the brave Americans who fought tyranny to secure the very liberty that
    these extremists take for granted. To this end, in June of this year, I
    signed an Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials,
    and Statues, and Combating Recent Criminal Violence, ensuring that
    anarchy and base criminal acts will no longer tarnish memorials built to
    honor the heroes who have served our country and defended our
    Constitution. On this Constitution and Citizenship Day, and during this
    Constitution Week, we recommit to upholding our constitutional system,
    to honoring its Framers and those who have sacrificed to defend it--who
    knew the true price of liberty--and to embracing the duty we as citizens
    have to preserve the society it has built.
    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, 2020, as
    Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and September 17, 2020, through
    September 23, 2020, as Constitution Week. On this day and during this
    week, we celebrate the citizens and the Constitution that have 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 seventeenth day of
    September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the
    Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
    fifth.
    DONALD J. TRUMP