Featured speaker at the Barry County Bar Association’s Law Day observance April 29 was James Redford, Kent County Circuit Court Judge from 2003 to 2014, former chief legal counsel to Governor Rick Snyder, and now director of Michigan’s Veteran’s Agency.
Don Geukes was presented the Liberty Bell Award (see related stories).
In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower selected May 1 as Law Day, a day chosen specifically to counterbalance displays of military might in communist bloc countries, Redford said.
“Hundreds of processions of troops, of missiles, of tanks, of every type of armament known to mankind, for the killing of mankind. The communists believed that the displays demonstrated their strength as the superior power of the world at that time, he said.
Eisenhower, a five-star general and commanding officer of all Allied Forces in the European Theater in WWII who ordered millions of soldiers to fight to free Europe, recognized that, “it was not the force of arms which gave America its greatest strength, rather, it was our commitment to the rule of law.”
In other counties, in communist countries, disputes were settled by gun fights, political brawls and political coup d’états, with the military taking over civilian governments.
“Our disputes in our nation, individually or collectively, are settled in courts. Every day, disputes between individuals, and between businesses, sometimes between families, are resolved peacefully and predictably because of the rule of law,” he said.
Because of Miranda, and its assurance of the rights of people against the government, people can have confidence when they know what is to be taken place in special halls…where we come together as individuals as jurors, as witnesses, as judges as lawyers, to do justice. The Miranda decision is just as relevant today as it was in 1966, because it reaffirms the rule of law, he said. //
In the four Miranda warnings, suspects are told that they have the right to remain silent, that anything they say can and will be used against them in a court of law, they have the right to an attorney, and if they cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for them, he said.
“So Miranda today continues to be important and relevant…it’s what makes us a nation, our commitment to the rule of law…everyone is held to the rule of law. It gives greater faith in our system of government,” Redford said.
