Letters to the Editor

Law Day is May 1

I am writing to inform your readers about Law Day 2015. It is a national day established by President Eisenhower and observed annually on May 1st to consider how law affects our society.  Each year has a different theme relating to the justice system. This year’s Law Day theme is Magna Carta: Symbol of Freedom under Law.

Magna Carta, meaning “Great Charter,” was agreed to by King John of England in 1215, 800 years ago, and is one of the oldest and most revered legal documents in the world. It is the source of the individual’s right to due process of law contained in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to our Constitution and in English law today:  “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”

Virginia Legal Aid Society provides legal advice and representation to low-income people in civil matters in Central, Southside, and Western Tidewater Virginia. We and other lawyers still enforce the right to due process of law every day.

David Neumeyer

Executive Director, Virginia Legal Aid Society

Lynchburg