Proclamation 4420

March 1, 1976

Liberty is the hallmark of the American experience—liberty from the tyranny of foreign domination and liberty from tyranny at home. To ensure our domestic liberty, based on our faith that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees certain rights and privileges to every citizen. Among those are: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to assemble and petition, and the right to due process of law.

Throughout our history, the preservation of those individual rights has been dependent upon our dedication to the rule of law.

To encourage the cultivation of that respect for law which is so vital to the spirit of democracy, the Congress, by Joint Resolution approved April 7, 1961 (75 Stat. 43, 36 U.S.C. 164), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to celebrate the first day of May as Law Day, U.S.A.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, invite the American people to celebrate Saturday, May 1, 1976, as Law Day, U.S.A., and to mark its observance with programs and ceremonies as befits our great heritage of 200 years of liberty and law.

I urge clergymen of all faiths to bring to public attention through sermons and suitable programs the moral and ethical dimensions of the law.

I urge also that schools, civic and service organizations, public bodies, libraries, the courts, the legal profession and the communications media participate in the observance of Law Day. And I call upon all public officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on that day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth.



GERALD R. FORD