Presidential Documents

44289 

Federal Register 

Vol. 82, No. 182 

Thursday, September 21, 2017 

Title 3— 

The President 

Proclamation 9639 of September 15, 2017 

Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, and Constitution Week, 

2017 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

On the 230th anniversary of the Constitution of the United States, we celebrate the enduring brilliance of our Founding Charter and recognize all 

American citizens. Older than any other written constitution in use today, 

our Constitution establishes a system of checks and balances designed to 

preserve liberty, promote prosperity, and ensure the security of our beloved 

country. On this day and during this week, we recall the people and the 

principles that made our Nation great and commit ourselves to restoring 

that greatness. 

Our Constitution is founded on a fundamental trust in America’s citizens. 

‘‘We the People,’’ the Constitution proclaims, are the source of all governmental authority. We are, as President Lincoln declared in the war-torn 

fields of Gettysburg, a ‘‘Government of the People, by the People, for the 

People.’’ That is why we must be particularly mindful of a would-be ruling 

class that has lost sight of this foundational truth. In the drive for progressive 

reform, our Federal Government has grown beyond belief and has layered 

regulation on top of burdensome regulation. American citizens and businesses 

face an unrelenting onslaught of rules and regulations adopted by an army 

of regulators unaccountable to the citizens they seek to control. 

My solemn promise as President is to return power to the American People— 

to the workers and the warriors who made this Nation great and will 

make it great again. Restoring this founding principle of accountability requires us to once again respect the structural safeguards of our great Constitution. The Framers of our Constitution sought to preserve liberty by separating 

government power. In our constitutional system, the Congress is charged 

with authoring and amending the laws, in accordance with its beliefs about 

what will benefit our country. The President’s duty is to execute those 

laws and protect the Nation, consistent with the Constitution. And the 

Judiciary’s role is to faithfully apply the Constitution and the laws to resolve 

specific cases and controversies. Modern government, however, has rebelled 

against the constraints inherent in these defined roles, abandoning that 

original design in favor of a centralized system of out-of-control agencies 

that claim independence from elected leaders and demand deference from 

the courts. 

On this day and during this week, I call on all citizens and all branches 

of government to reflect on the original meaning of our Constitution, and 

to recall the founding principles we too frequently forget: Our government 

exists to preserve freedom and to serve its citizens. We are accountable 

to the People. And the public deserves clear, intelligible laws that are 

enacted through an open, Constitutional process. 

As the elected head of the Executive Branch, I call on Federal agencies 

to reduce the crushing burdens of the regulatory state and to restore fairness, 

transparency, and due process in all regulatory matters. We are here to 

enable the greatness of our Nation, not to restrain it. I call on the Congress 

to take up critical legislative measures, and to work together to set free 

the full potential of our People. I call on Federal judges to apply the 


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44290 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 182 / Thursday, September 21, 2017 / Presidential Documents 

law as it exists, not as they wish it to be—to exercise, in the words of 

our Founders, ‘‘neither force nor will, but merely judgment.’’ And I call 

on all American citizens to pursue greatness in their lives through hard 

work and the insistence that their government exists only by the people, 

and for the people, of this great land. 

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, 2017, 

as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and September 17, 2017, through 

September 23, 2017, as Constitution Week. On this day and during this 

week, we celebrate the citizens and the Constitution that has 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 fifteenth day 

of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of 

the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 

forty-second. 

[FR Doc. 2017–20376 

Filed 9–20–17; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 3295–F7–P 


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