The Logo of the Committee on Civic Education

At the center of our logo is Lady Justice, one of the most recognizable symbols of the judiciary in the United States. But who is Lady Justice, and why does she represent the law?

Lady Justice is based on the Greek goddess Themis − honored as clear-sighted − and the Roman goddess Justicia − honored as representing the virtue of justice. She is blindfolded because justice is unbiased and should not be based on a person’s appearance or other outside influences. Lady Justice holds scales to represent the impartiality of the court’s decisions and a sword as a symbol of the power of justice.

Artists have portrayed Lady Justice in different ways, and you might see her without a sword or with an animal in other courthouses and paintings. The symbol, however, always stands for the belief that courts protect the rights of the people without consideration of other factors. The civic education committee incorporated Lady Justice into its logo because she represents the goal of the judiciary to decide cases in a fair and impartial manner.

The civic education committee chose the motto “Protecting Liberty and Justice for All” for its familiarity as well as its significance. This phrase is memorized by the youngest of schoolchildren but also expresses the highest ideals of those who forged a new nation. These words also demonstrate that noble concepts will be merely words on paper unless we have an entity whose responsibility it is to turn those concepts into a reality for all persons in their everyday lives. That is what our courts do.

Anchoring our motto “Protecting Liberty and Justice for All” to both ends of the “Missouri Courts” foundation of our logo and then wrapping the motto around the outline of our entire state visually represents the all-encompassing and indispensable role our courts play in ensuring that liberty and justice are afforded to all persons within our state.