Upton to receive 2022 Liberty Bell Award

St. Joseph County District Court Judge Jeffrey C. Middleton has announced the recipient of the 37th annual St. Joseph County Bar Association Liberty Bell Award.

The winner of the 2022 award is Fred Upton, United States Congressman for Michigan’s 6th District.

On May 1, 1985, the St. Joseph County Bar Association created the local Liberty Bell Award. The award is presented annually on Law Day, May 1, to a non-lawyer, individual, or organization, within the St. Joseph County community, who has made an outstanding contribution to the community in one of the following areas:

• Promoting a better understanding of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

• Encouraging a greater respect for the law and the Courts.

• Stimulating a deeper sense of individual responsibility so that citizens recognize their duties as well as their rights.

• Contributing to the effective functioning of our private and governmental institutions.

• Fostering a better understanding and appreciation for the rule of law.

St. Joseph Bar Association has selected Upton for his many years of service to the citizens of St. Joseph County and the members of the 6th Congressional District.

Upton has served as the representative for the Michigan 6th Congressional District, which includes St. Joseph County, since his election in 1986. He has been reelected to that seat an additional 13 times. He is presently one of the most senior members of the House of Representatives. On April 5, Upton announced that he would not run for reelection.

There will be a formal presentation of the Liberty Bell Award by the St. Joseph County Bar Association at 9 a.m. May 25. The ceremony will be held in Circuit Court Judge Paul Stutesman’s Courtroom A on the 2nd floor of the St. Joseph County Courthouse. A small reception will follow. Members of the public are invited to attend this ceremony.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: news-2022 St. Joseph County Bar Association Liberty Bell Award-Fred Upton