LAW DAY YOSEMITE 2018

Yosemite Law Day was a great success!

Congratulations to our Essay Winners:

First Place - Hannah Beaumont from Coarsegold Elementary

First Runner-Up - Colton Franklin from Oak Creek Intermediate

Second Runner-Up - Lupin Amstutz from Yosemite Valley Elementary

LAW DAY YOSEMITE 2018

EQUAL PROTECTION FOR ALL

The Sixth Annual Law Day Yosemite was held on Friday, May 4, 2018, at Half Dome Village (formerly known as Curry Village) in Yosemite Valley. 

President Eisenhower set May 1 as Law Day to celebrate the rule of law and equal rights. Courts and bar associations across the country now participate in the observance, which generally occurs over several weeks in April and May.

The 2018 Law Day Yosemite included an essay contest for grammar school students. The theme, Equal Protection For ALL, focused on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and it's application in the courts.  

Eighth graders from Coarsegold Elementary, Fresno Soul (School of Unlimited Learning), Greeley Hill Elementary, Lake Don Pedro, Mariposa Elementary, Oak Creek Elementary, Rivergold, Tenaya (Groveland), Woodland Elementary School (Mariposa), and Yosemite Valley / El Portal Elementary School participated in the essay contest. Their compositions were judged for understanding of the subject, originality of thought, argumentation and organization. There were 24 essays that went to the three judge panel. The three finalists, listed above, were recognized and the winning essay was read at the Law Day event. The finalists each won various Apple personal computing devices.

Law Day Yosemite 2018, led by our Master of Ceremonies, the Honorable Judge Jeremy Peterson, also hosted students from Sacramento’s Florin High School Law Academy, 70 home-schooled students and teachers from the Sacramento area, inner city youth from Fresno and from East Palo Alto. 345 students and 20 chaperone/teachers attended.

 

 

Criminal law and procedure professor and national network television legal commentator, Laurie Levenson, was our keynote speaker. Click here for a brief bio on Ms. Levenson. Ms. Levenson spoke about the importance of 'due process of law' in our country's system of justice, and shared some real life stories of people who have been saved by it.

 

 

 

 

The commemoration began with music from the Clovis West Jazz Band Band. The National Park Service Mounted Ranger Horse Patrol presented the colors, followed by a beautiful solo rendition of the National Anthem by Lauren Boone, and Yosemite first graders led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. 

 

 

 

 

Law Day Yosemite is sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, in conjunction with the Park Concessionaire, Yosemite Hospitality LLC, and the National Park Service. For more information, please contact Carol Moses, carol@yosemitelawyer.com or call (559) 449-9069.