Sumner County Commissioner Steve Warner and District Judge William Mott were on hand to make the presentation on the new Magna Carta display at the Sumner County Courthouse.

by Amber Schmitz, Sumner Newscow — An exhibit celebrating the signing of the Magna Carta in England over 800 years ago, and the importance of that document on our democracy today, has been set up in the vestibule of the Sumner County Courthouse. The display will be at the courthouse throughout the month of February.

This exhibit was created by the Library of Congress and the American Bar Association and has been displaced across America the past two years. District Court judge William Mott in conjunction with the attorney general’s office in Topeka was instrumental in getting the exhibit to Sumner County. Last week, County Commissioner Steve Warner and Mott were on hand to speak at the official swearing in ceremony.

“I was in Topeka and we were talking about how important it is that people know the origins of our government, constitution and law,” Mott said. “I saw this exhibit and I wanted to bring this here.”

Mott said it is important to read, invigorate and understand what was sacrificed to get to where we are today.

“I’ve been a lawyer since 1995 and other judges I talk to say people on jury duty, for instance, not showing up doesn’t seem to understand the importance of their job as citizens. They don’t realized it has to be power of the people and to exercise that,” Mott said. 

Mott said the original Magna Carta document got its start during the Robin Hood days. And the new way of thinking was, “absolute power corrupts.” A new form of government was created in which there were checks and balances.

“Then when we formed our government and the founding fathers took those ideas and decided to diffuse the power into three branches of government: The executive, the congress and the court,” Mott said. “And from there the U.S. Constitution was established- which is an incredible document.

Today the Constitution and the Magna Carta document is taken for granted, Mott said.

Of course, there are those who undermine the Magna Carta’s and Constitution’s authority today. For example, many legislators have tried to undermine the judiciary branch. There have introduced bills in which the intent is to defund the judiciary branch because of a previous ruling they did not like.

“I urge those people to come here and read this and reacquaint themselves with how we got here,” Mott said.

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