As lawyers, we have the duty to preserve the Constitutions of both the United States of America and the State of California. Our oath of admission requires that we “support the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state.” Our oath requires that we ensure that the rights, privileges and protections of our Constitutions remain for our children and future generations. We have a clear duty to the future generations of this country, to those who haven’t been born or who haven’t yet arrived from war torn lands in search of a better life, to all those who seek the American dream, to protect our Constitutions.

Fortunately in this time of strife we can rely on the proposition that our government is based on the rule of law, not of any one individual. The rule of law applies to the government and to the citizen. It applies equally to the rich as to the poor, to the weak and the powerful. Our country has no cult of personality like those of various totalitarian regimes both past and present.

Or put another way by the great trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams, “The difference between our system and the system of which Mr. Khrushchev is so proud is that, in his system, the police are the law. In ours they are under the law—a difference dramatically symbolized by the fact that in Moscow the corpse of Lenin is kept on display under glass. In Washington, we keep on display under glass the Constitution of the United States with its Bill of Rights.”

It is our duty as attorneys to ensure that rule of law continues. Our oath requires that we follow this duty and defend our Constitutions, and by so defending we will maintain the rule of law in our country. Our Constitutions are nothing but tattered paper if we as attorneys do not fulfill our obligation to protect their integrity. Our Constitutional system is protected by the attorneys who walk the halls of the courthouses, representing their clients to the best of their abilities in all areas of the law, by the Judges who sit in Superior Court, and by everyone who counsels citizens to resolve disputes peacefully through legal means.

Gerry Spence has recognized the importance of lawyers both to the creation of the United States Constitution and its continued vitality, “During Watergate, I comforted myself with the memories that Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton and Adams had all been lawyers, too, and that Jefferson and his colleague Madison had framed perhaps the most revered instrument in human history, the Constitution of the United States, with its venerable Bill of Rights. Theirs was the holy work of lawyers. Hadn’t these gentlemen guaranteed liberties to the citizen that had never before been bestowed upon the human race?.…And even in our times, hadn’t lawyers and judges pried the nation free from the ugly grip of racism in Brown v. Board of Education, and hadn’t the profession fought for women and struggled for our constitutional rights under Miranda and Mapp? During the painful days of Watergate, I held to the belief that the legal system and the lawyers in it would save the nation, and indeed it was lawyers, both as prosecutors and judges, who brought their errant brothers to justice.”

It is our duty as attorneys to support our Constitutions. We can do that by following our consciences in our daily professional lives with our Constitutions as our guide. Fortunately our system is made up not of one individual at the top giving directives but of many citizens empowered by their professional oath to safeguard our Constitutions.