Shawn Patrick Regan
My first memories of having an awareness of our government, and some initial sense of appreciation for democracy, date to 1976. I was six years old.
On a busy road in a neighboring town, an underpass supported by two lengths of steel girders had been transformed on the exteriors from rusted steel to brightly painted white with the numbers 1776 and 1976 painted in red and blue, respectively, each encircled in stars. My father explained to me the coming Bicentennial.
My recollection is that enthusiasm for the Bicentennial infused every community event over the Spring, Summer and into the Fall. I recall riding on an Independence Day parade float honoring the history of the textile industry in our town, dressed as a youngster would have been in the late 1700s. People lined the street waving flags. Revolutionary War reenactments occurred all Summer at various points along the Mohawk Valley where I lived and where several battles had been fought: Oriskany, Stanwix, Schuyler, Fort Plain. I recall one grandfather taking me to festivities at the Herkimer Home – situated directly across the Erie Canal from where my parents now live – the farmstead of General Nicholas Herkimer who died from battle injuries sustained while successfully preventing British reinforcements from reaching Saratoga, thereby bringing about the turning point in the War. My other grandfather showed me a collection of cast iron cannonballs he had unearthed in his large garden over the years, relics of the Revolutionary War. Fireworks were ubiquitous all Summer. That red, white and blue bridge remained painted in the Bicentennial theme for many years, a reminder of how fortunate we are to live here and for the spirit of our Founders – the Spirit of ’76.
In 2026, our Nation will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our Semiquincentennial, And I am pleased to share that over the coming year, under the leadership of Chief Judge Debra Livingston and Judge Reena Raggi, the Second Circuit and its constituent lower courts have numerous programs and events planned to honor this anniversary. The Semiquincentennial will be an instrumental part of the Summer Justice Institute program spearheaded by Judges Joe Bianco and Victor Marrero, part of the legacy of Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann and his Justice For All: Courts and the Community Initiative, which the Federal Bar Foundation is so pleased to help fund and staff with our volunteer members. That program now educates hundreds of high schoolers each Summer in New York and Connecticut. The court will expand its Art & Law Project, with a focus on the 250th anniversary. The Semiquincentennial and Declaration of Independence will be the focus of several lectures, including the annual Hands Lecture, which will feature a soon-to-be-announced, widely heralded, historian and scholar. Immigration ceremonies at our courthouses – always a profound and energizing experience to observe – will be infused with content related to this anniversary and the promise these ceremonies hold for our next 250 years.
Our remarkable colleagues Kathy and Judge Denny Chin plan to present a special adaptation of one of their many historic reenactments, this time one in which the Declaration of Independence played a prominent role in an historic United States Supreme Court case successfully argued by then-former President and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and which helped galvanize the abolitionist movement by focusing national attention on the moral injustice and legal illegitimacy of slavery. The Semiquincentennial will be featured substantially in the 2026 Second Circuit Judicial Conference for those able to attend.
Already, on September 16, the Judge Katzmann Justice For All Initiative hosted the inaugural Constitution and Citizenship Day Summit, at New York Law School, in preparation for the Semiquincentennial, to examine democratic principles, the rule of law and the role of civic knowledge in shaping the nation’s future.
The courts are eager for our support, promotion and participation. And the Federal Bar Council and Federal Bar Foundation will provide considerable support and opportunities for our members to do so. I encourage every member to seize that opportunity.
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In 1976, and for many years thereafter, I had no sense of the context and then-recent history within which our Bicentennial celebrations occurred: that our Nation had endured a litany of convulsions that tore at the fabric of our country in the short period of time prior to the Bicentennial. A controversial overseas war had culminated in the fall of Saigon to Communist-backed North Vietnamese troops and increased fears about the expansion of Russian influence. Our president, facing impeachment, resigned and was controversially pardoned. His original vice president had resigned earlier in disgrace. His second vice president, who had become his successor as president, was the subject of two assassination attempts in which shots were fired at him from close range in 1975, one coming within five inches of striking him. Investigations by reporters and several government commissions revealed that the CIA had engaged in a history of domestic surveillance, overseas assassinations and apparently even a mind-control research program that included drug and torture experiments on unsuspecting U.S. citizens.
The U.S. Supreme Court had issued a number of decisions on significant issues about which Americans had strong opinions and which have continued to be at the center of our legal system for decades, including Roe, recognizing a constitutional right to abortion, and Buckley, which found certain limitations on contributions to political candidates to be an unconstitutional infringement on political speech, essentially concluding that “money is speech.” The nation was also in the middle of what came to be known as The Great Inflation, the government had implemented unprecedented peacetime wage and price controls, the global monetary system established during World War II had been abandoned and the Nation had endured severe energy shortages. Confidence and trust in government and other institutions was seemingly at an historic nadir. Notwithstanding that context, history reflects that people in 1976 took leave to celebrate and honor together what is best and undeniably good about our country.
Like in 1976, our Nation remains quite imperfect and people from all perspectives believe stridently that the times present significant challenges. The Semiquincentennial will present particular opportunities for lawyers to sow the seeds of civic virtue that can perpetuate the rule of law and ultimately enhance our most important institutions.
With your participation and support, the Federal Bar Council and Federal Bar Foundation will dedicate significant attention and resources toward the Semiquincentennial.
I hope you will personally join us and support the judiciary in these celebrations.