The Charleston Daily Mail has this article uncovering "a little-known provision that Congress passed in 2004: Every school and college that receives federal money must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787."
Sen. Robert Byrd, "the West Virginia Democrat who keeps a copy of the Constitution in his pocket," inserted the Constitution lesson mandate into a massive spending bill in 2004, "frustrated by what he called a huge ignorance on the part of many Americans about history."
I believe Senator Byrd is absolutely right about the ignorance of our youth about basic American civics. At the beginnig of my senior year in high school, our Contemporary America teacher gave the class a U.S. Citizenship test--you know, the kind of test given to immigrants. 3 out of 25 people had a passing score. The test contained basic questions like, "Who is the current Vice-President?" and "How many U.S. Senators are there?" It was shocking how few people even knew who their U.S. Senators were.
Will this "Constitution Day" make a difference? We're already teaching civics, and the lessons are apparently not reaching the students. Maybe we, as lawyers, could make this OUR day to get into the schools and help kids learn about the Constitution. Afterall, we are among a handful of citizens who take an oath to "support the Constitution of the United States."
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Brian, as part of its celebration of Constitution Day, Marshall University will be hosting WV Supreme Court oral arguments later in the week (September 20th). We already have two important constitutional cases set for argument -- the tobacco personal injury litigation certified question involving State Farm v. Campbell, and the coal severance tax case implicating the Import-Export clause. Trying to do our part to support better understanding of constitutional issues.
Another congressional mandate. I recall a story about the new principal who was a stickler for rules.
He discovered the supply room was never locked. This shocked him. He told the janitor he was too trusting of the teachers.
"Well," said the janitor, "we trust them with our children."
The Constitution is important. I suggest Congress re-read the 10th Amendment
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