# Ronald Reagan — "our laws represent the collective moral voice of a free society" > [!quote] "We must never forget that our laws represent the collective moral voice of a free society — a voice that articulates our shared beliefs about the rules of civilized behavior, and reflects our basic precept that men and women should be treated as free individuals, responsible for the consequences of their actions. When we countenance the suffering of innocent victims of crime, we thus threaten to undermine the faith of our citizens in a legal system that lies at the heart of much that is unique and precious about our Nation itself." > — Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 4929 — Crime Victims Week, April 14, 1982 ## Context Issued as a presidential proclamation establishing the first national Crime Victims Week. Reagan, who built much of his political identity around "law and order," cast the legal system not as raw coercion but as the moral consensus of a free people — and warned that public faith in that system is fragile and must be protected. ## Why this matters The movement's patron saint placing reverence for the rule of law at the center of conservative identity: laws as "the collective moral voice of a free society," and "a legal system that lies at the heart of much that is unique and precious about our Nation." Reagan ties the legitimacy of the whole order to public *faith* in even-handed law — the same faith that erodes when a legal system is bent to protect the powerful or punish opponents. From the right's foundational hero, it is a receipt for the dedication-to-the-rule-of-law half of this collection. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, full quote from Proclamation 4929 — Crime Victims Week, April 14, 1982](https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/quotes/our-laws-represent-the-collective-moral-voice-of-a). Also published in the *Public Papers of the Presidents: Ronald Reagan, 1982*. - **Status:** Verbatim from the proclamation. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Theodore Roosevelt - no man is above the law]] — the earlier Republican statement of legal equality. - [[Gerald Ford - our Constitution works]] — the Republican president who watched the system hold against a lawless presidency. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Rule of Law]].