NEBRASKA CITY – From a mock trial where Superman’s legal fate hinges on authority divided among judge and jury to the shedding of the rule from the King of England and adoption of the U.S. Constitution the separation of powers helped underpin the Law Day program at Nebraska City on May 1.

Law Day was started by President Dwight Eisenhauer in 1958 and retired District Judge Randall Rehmeier and Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke helped get the tradition restarted in Nebraska City a year ago. Judge Rehmeier told fifth graders assembled at the county courthouse about the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.

 

Rehmeier: “The whole purpose this year is basically helping teach fifth graders what our government and our system is all about, how it works and how it operates.”

Topics included the Revolutionary War against kingship and the separation of powers between the U.S. President, Congress and the courts.

Rehmeier: “I think they are important to put things into the perspective of where we came from, when we look at history that’s part of where we’ve been before and where we don’t want to go again. So our form of government, what we’ve come up with here in the United States,is pretty important.”

Law Day was observed in Otoe County in 1965, when the theme was a quote by President Theodore Roosevelt that ‘no man is above the law.’ In 1966, event organizer Otto Wellensiek said it pointed out the contrast between freedom under U.S. law and the tyranny of communism. In 1974, attorney general candidate Paul Douglas told his Nebraska City law day audience that ‘justice for the people is contained in the rule of law.’

 

Rehmeier: “I think when we talk about the separation of powers and we look at what’s going on in the world today around us we say ‘you know where is all this going?’ We start having questions about it. But when we look again at history, which is important and part of why we’re doing what we’re doing today on Law Day, we’ve had ups and downs before. This isn’t the first time that we’ve had situations in this country where there are disagreements, and we always have a way of rising to the top.”

He said reminding students about the law and U.S. history is part of the Law Day mission.

 

Rehmeier: “I think there is something good that comes out of everything. Sometimes we push too far in one direction and then we flop back in the other direction and I think right now that’s what we’re going through. Separation of powers is important … one thing we don’t want is a king making all the decisions.
We like the separation of powers. We have three branches of government and so it’s very important to our due process and how we want to do things.”

 

Participating in Law Day events were County Attorney Jennifer Panko-Rahe, state probation, Public Defender Michael Ziskey, Court Clerk Janis Riege, Sheriff Colin Caudill and Judge David Partsch. As he did in 2013, Deputy Dan Lionberger gave a demonstration of his police dog.