AYER — The Ayer District Court was filled on Friday with court employees, law enforcement officers, attorneys, teachers, students, and other community members for a Law Day celebration — an event designed, as first justice of the Ayer District Court Tejal Mehta told the crowd, “both to convey knowledge to the next generation and to honor those who are doing the work.”

According to the American Bar Association, Law Day is a national commemoration held each May to celebrate the rule of law and deepen public understanding of the legal system. The 2026 theme of the commemoration, “The Rule of Law and the American Dream,” underscores the ABA’s statement on their website that “the rule of law — the idea that no person is above the law — is what ensures the rights of the people to live their lives as freely as possible and to pursue their dreams.”

The centerpiece of the afternoon was an address by Serge Georges Jr., associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, whose remarks drew a standing ovation.

“When communities gather like this in the courthouse to talk about the rule of law and to speak honestly about the American dream, this isn’t just ceremony, it’s an act of faith,” Georges said. “Faith that law can still be a place of fairness.”

He tied the 2026 Law Day theme to the nation’s approaching 250th anniversary, reminding attendees that debates over power and accountability have shaped the U.S. since before its founding.

“Before the Declaration of the Independence, before we became a country, before we became who we are today, there was a serious argument about power,” Georges said. “Who may use it, who may restrain it, and what ordinary people can do with power when it goes too far.”

He invoked Patrick Henry’s 1765 denunciation of the Stamp Act — “If this be treason, make the most of it” — noting, “That line has some heat. Not because America was born from anger … What made that moment matter was courage joined by principle. The demand that the law serve liberty, not choke it. The demand that the government answer to the people, not hover above them.

“The best way to honor our great country is not to pretend it’s been perfect,” Georges added. “The best way to honor our beloved America is to love it enough to keep working at it. And that’s what Law Day asks of all of us. It’s not nostalgia, and it’s certainly not cynicism. It’s work, patience, principle.”

He urged honesty about the nation’s uneven progress.

“The American story has never moved in a straight line,” he said. “We’ve had extraordinary ideals since the beginning, and we’ve also had very painful failures from the beginning. That’s not a reason to turn away from the promise. It’s a reason to take the promise seriously.”

Georges reflected on his family’s journey from Haiti to the U.S. in 1974, when his father accepted a teaching position with the Boston Public Schools — a career that would span 35 years — and spoke about the formative moments that shaped his understanding of the country.

“I didn’t discover this country as a whole,” Georges said. “I discovered this country in pieces, through a classroom, a neighborhood, a courthouse, a police officer that called me out when I tried to boost a Matchbox Car out of the local Bradley’s, and said, ‘What the hell are you doing? You have the chance to be somebody.’”

He added that through the years that some of his dreams came true and others didn’t.

“Some dreams changed so much along the way, I didn’t even recognize it,” Georges continued. “The road bends, doors close, and other doors open — doors that you didn’t even see were doors — and then all the sudden, here we are. That’s what I’ve learned.”

The American dream, he said, “isn’t some trophy to keep in a case. It asks whether or not we can be useful. Whether we can find a way to serve. Whether we can build a life with enough room for somebody else’s hopes.”

Georges emphasized that the dream requires a legal foundation.

“A dream needs the ground beneath it,” he said. “Without law the American dream becomes dependent on luck, wealth, connections, or force. That’s not freedom. That’s just chance.

“The rule of law gives the American dream solid footing,” he continued. “It’s not perfect, it’s never going to be perfect, but without it the dream has no reliable shelter. The person with money wins because they have money. The person with power wins because they have power. The person without either learns to lower their expectations, their eyes, their voice. That’s not the country we’re called upon to build.”

Georges reminded attendees that the rule of law is lived not in grand gestures but in everyday interactions.

“It arrives as a notice in the mail, a clerk’s window, a court officer’s good morning, a hearing on a Tuesday morning,” he said. “That’s where trust is built and it’s also where it can be lost.”

To the students in the courtroom, Georges offered encouragement and responsibility, noting, “You are not just watching history — you’re entering it.”

“The law needs good people of all walks of life,” he said. “It needs people who can disagree without dehumanizing, people who can be brave enough without being cruel, and people who can admit that they’re wrong. So, I ask you not to let cynicism convince you of anything. Cynicism is usually just some kind of disappointment that’s all dressed up as wisdom. Stay curious, stay honest, stay humble and above all, stay useful.”

He added, “I want you to keep your dreams large, but I want to keep your dreams so large that it includes somebody else’s dream along with yours.”

Georges closed with a call for collective resolve.

“A resolve to make the law more understandable,” he told the crowd. “A resolve to make our institutions worthy of trust. That to me is the American dream at its best. It doesn’t guarantee ease, not that every promise will be smooth, or the fantasy that talent and effort alone can overcome every obstacle. It’s something better than that. It’s a shared commitment of all of us to build a country where a person can begin anew, where a child can look forward with hope, where a newcomer can become a neighbor, where a mistake doesn’t have to mean the end of your life, and where power is restrained and dignity is recognized. Where justice isn’t just distant — it’s present and it’s human.”

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan also spoke during the event, telling attendees that the rule of law is increasingly on people’s minds — and increasingly under strain.

She warned that many principles once taken for granted “now seem to be open to debate,” but stressed that “the protection of democracy … heals from the ground up, not from the top down. It depends on us.”

Ryan urged people to resist passive consumption of information.

“Be your own search engine,” she said. “Go get a book. Learn something about people, places, things you know nothing about.”

Curiosity, Ryan added, strengthens civic life.

“It makes you a better member of society, because people who are well read and curious come to every encounter and every conversation with information, new facts that help them be better participants,” Ryan said. “That’s how democracy works, by sharing ideas.”

She encouraged community involvement, volunteerism, and self‑reflection.

“When you look in that mirror, are you who you say you are?” she said.

“It’s very easy and very popular right now to be cynical, there’s a lot to be cynical about,” Ryan added. “It’s very easy to be a keyboard warrior, to be spouting out things. It’s so much easier to break something than it is to build it.”

Being a builder, she noted is how the nation has endured for 250 years.

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian also spoke of “trying times,” reminding the audience, “We can’t take the rule of law for granted. Now more than ever we have to remember to hold on to our principles.”

Reflecting on his years as a prosecutor, he said his goal was never punishment for its own sake.

“It wasn’t to put people in jail,” Koutoujian said, “it was to be able to do the right thing by those individuals who were being prosecuted.”

He called the pursuit of justice “a noble calling,” and cited John Adams’ declaration that Massachusetts must be “a government of laws and not of men.”

Trial attorney Hank Brennan, who served as one of the defense attorneys for notorious mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger and as a special prosecutor in the Karen Read case, offered a reflection on equality before the law, noting the rule of law is that nobody is above the law, but maybe most importantly nobody is below the law.”

“It’s about equality and fairness, and our wonderful system fights every day to do its best so that everybody gets the benefit of the rule of law,” he said.

During the celebration, Mehta presented the inaugural Gold Gavel Award to attorney Christopher Reardon, who received not only a ceremonial gavel but also a Monster energy drink — a nod to his well‑known high‑energy work ethic, which he has attributed to the beverage.

Attendees also heard the National Anthem performed by Todd Angilly, the Boston Bruins’ anthem singer and a former probation officer who spent 12 years in Essex Superior Court.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.