I am taking this opportunity to add a second post on a Friday.  This post is a break from the sports themed Friday format of this blog.  And the break is for good reason.  Actually two good reasons (but one better than the other).  First and foremost, this week (on May 1) marked the annual “Law Day” celebration.  As my colleague, Jason Grams, explained to a class of fifth graders to which he spoke as part of the Omaha Bar Association’s Lawyers in the Classroom activity, Law Day was established by proclamation in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower.  Each succeeding president has issued a proclamation on May 1 in honor of law day.  This year, President Obama recalled the purpose of President Eisenhower’s 1958 proclamation as “fitting that the people of this Nation should remember with pride and vigilantly guard the great heritage of liberty, justice, and equality under law which our forefathers bequeathed to us.”  President Obama, however, did not mention Eisenhower’s other reasons for establishing Law Day; that law “distinguishes our governmental system from the type of government that rules by might alone,” that our government serves “as a beacon light for oppressed peoples of the world,” or that “universal application of the principle of the rule of law in the settlement of international disputes would greatly enhance the cause of a just and enduring peace.”

On Wednesday, some of my colleagues and I attended the Omaha Bar Association’s celebration of Law Day.  It was a great event that was well attended by the members of the Omaha Bar.  The legal system in this country is far from perfect but, as this year’s Law Day theme (No Courts/No Justice/No Freedom) reminds us, it is essential to maintain the integrity of our Country.

The second reason to deviate from our Friday sports related theme is that today is the official U.S. release of the much anticipated Avenger’s movie.  Avenger’s all over the country are assembling at movie houses to take in one of the most anticipated movie events in a long time.  What does that have to do with the law?  The Yale University’s Lillian Goldman Law Library has had one answer on display.  While comic book superheroes may provide escapism for many of us, they have represented the first introduction into ideas of justice for many others.  And, as the Law Day theme notes, without our Courts, there can be no Justice and therefore, no Freedom.