Law Day Student Essay: No Courts, No Justice, No Freedom

by Roderic Ball
Champion Theme Middle School

First place essay winner Roderic Bell reads his essay at the DBA Law Day luncheon. Roderic is a student of Ms. Keinya Dorsett’s class at Champion Theme Middle School

The United States of America was founded on the Constitution. In the Constitution it states that all men are created equal. Our legal system is based on everyone being innocent until proven guilty. This is a process that is taken care of in our courts. If there were no courts there would be no justice and there would be no freedom. Courts are necessary to keep things equal in this nation. Without courts the rich would pay their way out of any trouble they got into and the poor would fill up the jail cells because they could not afford to pay their way out of things even if they were innocent. Just like the environment has to balance the earth, our court system balances the good from the bad. Without our courts there would not be any balance and the idea of equal justice would be shattered.

Our daily news is filled with stories where the findings of the courts help a person who looks guilty from the outside be proven innocent by the evidence. If it were not for our court system, a person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time could spend their life in jail when they were really innocent. On the other hand, without our court system a person who looks innocent can be proven guilty by the evidence. Our court system allows for a group of randomly selected people to hear both sides of a story and make a decision. Without a balanced court system people offering bribes would be more common in our justice system.

A country without a balanced court system is one that has no justice. Justice can be defined as the good winning and the bad losing and facing the consequences. The courts help to protect the basic rights of every citizen of America. The courts try their best to give a fair ruling in all cases that come up before them. They use the fair judgment of a group of citizen that are considered peers of the person. They decide if the accused in a case is right or wrong. The courts help protect everyday citizens from large rich companies who could cause harm if they are not careful. For example, the courts helped to protect the people and animals in the Gulf after the oil spill to get their lives back on track after that big disaster.

Our ancestors have always strived for freedom for every citizen of the United States. This is one of the reasons for the founding of this country. Our forefathers left England because they wanted some basic freedoms. The freedom to worship, the freedom to speak their mind, and the right to bear arms to protect themselves from harm. Freedom is very important to almost all citizens of the United States.

Imagine no courts, no justice, and no freedom. It would be like living in a country with a dictator where its citizens have no say so in their daily lives. Other countries around the world without courts, justice and freedom are always at war trying to get these basic rights. These fights have been going on for thousands of years making these countries poor and its citizens sick and hungry. A place without courts, justice and freedom is a place without peace.