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University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1964
Today Set Aside to Remember Our Bill of Rights
By Suzy Tichacek
Amid the terror of Hitler and the rise of Mussolini, a group of American citizens of Italian background met at a convention of the National United Italian Associations and began the movement for a national Bill of Rights Day.
In 1938, at the N.U.I.A. convention Vincent Rossini, realizing the importance of America's insured rights and inspired by a speech given by Governor Herbert H. Lehman, spoke to the group on the Bill of Rights. He told the audience of his sponsorship to be called Bill of Rights Day.
AS A FOUNDER of Bill of Rights Day, Rossini established the American Bill of Rights Day Association to call on Congress, governors, and mayors to proclaim Dec. 15 a legal holiday.
In 1941 Congress passed a resolution calling for the national observance of a Bill of Rights Day. After signing the bill passed by Congress, Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Dec. 15 a legal holiday to celebrate the signing of the Bill of Rights.
Today, as in the past, has been proclaimed by Governor John Anderson to observe the 173rd anniversary of the adoption of the first 10 amendments to our Constitution.
THE PURPOSE of setting aside this day, Rossini explained, is to "request all Americans to memorize and to absorb the deep meaning of the Bill of Rights so that, knowing its full significance, they can act concertedly and with determination to better uphold the principles" upon which it is based and defend it from being ravaged and distorted."
These amendments to the Constitution guarantee the liberties of each citizen and limit the interference of the government on individual right-
Justice Glenm Terrell, of the Supreme Court of Florida, in an article on the Bill of Rights said, "I prefer having my civil and political rights administered by the Bill of Rights, clothed with due process, rather than by any totalitarian pattern."
"UNDER THE Bill of Rights," he said, "I can challenge with assurance the right and the method of those who admeasure them."
"On the other hand, if I challenge the method of admeasurement under the totalitarian method, I do so at the risk of facing the hangman's noose, or the firing squad
This old world has been good to me and I do not care for such a precarious tenure . . . "
This safeguard for individual freedoms against the government is not unique to America according to Robert Mollan, acting assistant professor of political science, but very few other countries have such insured rights.
"The individual as an individual has a unique importance," Mollan said. "The government ought not to transgress in certain areas."
WHEN THE first Congress convened in 1789, they started to work immediately on the Bill of Rights. It was only through the promise of these amendments that the Constitution was ratified.
"There was little doubt in the minds of the framers of the Constitution that these basic freedoms needed to be safeguarded," Mollan said.
Herman Lujan, assistant professor of political science, continued to explain that having our rights written down has a definite advantage over unwritten laws such as in the British governmental system.
"Having the laws written is important." Prof. Lujan said, "because they become a part of the legal framework. It provides for a gradual building up of concepts of what our individual rights are."
"It ALSO provides a basis for discussion--you can focus on a specific problem." Prof. Lujan said. "It also benefits history because all the precedents can be evaluated in terms of the present."
Prof. Lujan continued to explain what might have happened had the Bill of Rights not been written down as a part of our Constitution.
"The adjustment the states and the federal government had to make in relationship to each other might have resulted in power clashes," Prof. Luian said.
"With legal rights a method was provided to realize the relationships between the two powers—based on the individual," he said.
The Bill of Rights in the federal Constitution charged the federal government with the right of protecting the individual, Prof. Lujan said.
AT THAT time the states, as sovereign creatures did not want to yield that sovereignty over citizens.
This gave the federal government the right to intervene and moderate the state police powers, he said.
"There are two Bill of Rights in the United States," Prof. Dyson explained. One is the written form and the other is the vast amount of interpretation set down by the courts. Britain has only the latter.
"THE COURTS have chosen to take a flexible view of the Bill of Rights," Prof. Dyson said. "The flexibility is reflected in the fact that the most important clauses are the vague clauses—the 'due process clause' and the 'equal protection' clause."
OUR BILL of Rights, 173 years old today, is considered quite old compared to some countries which are just recently gaining their independence.
Prof. Dyson, in comparing our Bill of Rights to the unwritten rights of England, said the English people have as many freedoms as American citizens.
K. A. Jagannathan, a graduate student from Madras, India, said his country also has amendments to its Constitution which are very similar to the American Bill of Rights.
Richard Dyson, assistant professor of law, pointed out that throughout the years the Bill of Rights has been interpreted broadly and flexibly by the court system of the United States.
"Our Bill of Rights, however, doesn't mean anything without our interpretation," Prof. Dyson said.
"Before we had a written Constitution," Jagannathan said, "all the freedoms were there but we couldn't say 'according to the Constitution..."
HE ALSO explained that in thei
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"You also have changing traditions," Jagannathan said. "It is very interesting to see the two schools of thought in the Supreme Court—progressive and conservative."
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