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November 2005
Greetings from the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Bar Association. This is the third edition of Law Wise for the 2005-2006 school year and the final edition for 2005. The theme of November's edition of Law Wise is "Celebrating the Bill of Rights" to coincide with Bill of Rights Day on Dec. 15.
Bill of Rights Day is Dec. 15!
During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of civil rights before and during the American Revolution. They demanded a "bill of rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens. Several state conventions in their formal ratification of the Constitution asked for such amendments; others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that the amendments would be offered. On Sept. 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States therefore proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution that met arguments most frequently advanced against it. Articles 3 to 12, ratified Dec. 15, 1971, by three-fourths of the state legislatures, constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights. Article 2 concerning "varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives" was finally ratified on May 7, 1992, as the 27th Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment, which concerned the number of constituents for each representative, was never ratified. Many of the delegates to the convention were not convinced that the Constitution they had approved outlined the ideal form of government for the country. But late in his life, James Madison scrawled out another letter, one never addressed. In it he declared that no government can be perfect and "that which is the least imperfect is therefore the best government." Portions of this article can be found at www.ourdocuments.gov. Did you know?
Facts courtesy of the Bill of Rights Institute. |
Bill of Rights Writing ContestAttention fifth grade teachers! The Kansas Bill of Rights Committee is proud to sponsor the Bill of Rights and George Mason Prose or Poetry Contest. Students in the fifth grade are encouraged to participate.
The contest is designed to educate students about the history and importance of liberty and freedom guaranteed to American citizens in the Bill of Rights. Kansas teachers and individual students are encouraged to submit entries. Entries will be retained so please make a copy of the entry prior to submission. Submit entries to the Kansas Press Association, 5423 S.W. 7th St., Topeka, KS 66606.
Entries must be postmarked by March 10, 2006. Winners will be notified by April 10, 2006. More contest information and entry forms can be found at ktwu.washburn.edu/education/bor/.
The Law-Related Education Inventory has the following items that are useful in working with students on the Bill of Rights:
The Law-Related Education Inventory has many resources to help teach about law-related topics. To order a catalog, call Janessa Akin at the Kansas Bar Association, (785) 234-5696. The Kansas Bar Association and the lawyers in your community sponsor the Law-Related Education Inventory. The clearinghouse will mail free copies of lawrelated posters, games, mock trials, booklets, lesson plans, and other aids. It is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The director of the Teachers College Resource Center, which houses the Law-Related Education Inventory, Marla Darby, can be reached at Darbymar@esumail.emporia.edu/.
The KBA Young Lawyers will sponsor a statewide mock trial competition for high school students. The 2006 competition will have two regional tournaments on March 4, 2006 - one in Sedgwick County and one in Johnson County. The top teams from those tournaments will advance to the state tournament in Kansas City on April 1, 2006. The state tournament winner will then compete at the national tournament in Oklahoma City on May 13, 2006. The YLS will provide financial assistance to the state champion for participation in the national tournament.
Teams for this competition consist of six to eight students. Schools can enter as many teams as they would like to enter. Registration fees are minimal, starting at $50 for the first team and $25 for each additional team. However, in no event is any school required to pay more than $200, regardless of the number of teams entered. The registration deadline is Feb. 10, 2006. An entry form can be located on Page 12 of this edition of Law Wise or at www.ksbar.org.
Amy Fellows-Cline is the coordinator of the 2006 tournament. Cline can be reached by phone at (316) 630-8100 or by e-mail at amycline@twgfirm.com.
Author: Fran O'Malley, The Democracy Project
Grade level: 4-5
Time to Complete: 40-50 minutes.
Objective: In this lesson students will apply their understanding of the Bill of Rights to "everyday" situations. The situations presented in this lesson are intended to focus student attention on rights that are considered "fundamental" under the Bill of Rights.
Students will:
Prior to this lesson students should have developed an understanding of the rights and protections embedded within the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.
Materials Needed:
Procedures:
Debriefing Questions:
Extensions:
Take the amendments down from the wall. Place students in 10 groups and give each group one of the amendment papers. Have each group create a "Situation Strip" case and place it in the "Situation Box." Repeat steps 3 and 4 under the Procedures section of this lesson.
For homework have students cut out articles from newspapers or magazines that describe cases involving the Bill of Rights. Be sure to encourage them to bring in photographs or cartoons as well as articles. Create a Bill of Rights bulletin board that features the first 10 Amendments with the current events articles that the students bring in to class.
| Lesson 1 - Teacher's guide | ||
|---|---|---|
| Situation | Under Which Amendment | Explanation of Protection (described in a grade appropriate manner) |
| 1 | 6 | Adults charged with a crime are guaranteed a trial by jury under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. NOTE: Juveniles are not guaranteed a trial by jury. This is done to protect the identity of a minor |
| 2 | 1 | The First Amendment to the Constitution states that the government may not promote religion. Since public school teachers are government workers, they cannot require students to pray. |
| 3 | 1 | The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press and protects people who write articles to express an opinion. |
| 4 | 1 | While a person ought to choose a word other than "stupid" to describe the decisions of a person in a position of authority, American citizens do have a right to free speech under the First Amendment. |
| 5 | 1 | The First Amendment guarantees American citizens the right to "assemble" peacefully, even if those involved in the assembly are protesting against the government. NOTE: Many towns require citizens to get permits before organizing the kind of "assemblies" covered under the First Amendment. |
| 6 | 6 | The Sixth Amendment tries to protect citizens from being taken advantage of by government officials who have a better understanding of the law by guaranteeing people who are suspected of a crime the right to have a lawyer present while they are being questioned. This right may go into effect even before a person has been placed under arrest. |
| 7 | 4 | Although the Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, this was not an unreasonable search. The locker belongs to the school, not the student. However, the principal would need a "reasonable suspicion" that a school rule had been broken to search a student's property. |
| 8 | 8 | The Eighth Amendment protects citizens against cruel and unusual punishment. Many people would consider the principal's treatment to be cruel and unusual. Some states and district, however, do allow paddling in schools. |
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Lesson 1 - Handout A Amendment I Amendment II Amendment III Amendment IV Amendment V Amendment VI Amendment VII Amendment VIII Amendment IX Amendment X |
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Lesson 1 - Handout B Situation 1 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. Situation 2 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. Situation 3 Under which amendment might someone like my uncle find protection? Explain how someone like my uncle is protected in a case such as this. Situation 4 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. Situation 5 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. Situation 6 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. Situation 7 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. Situation 8 Under which amendment might someone like me find protection? Explain how someone like me is protected in a case such as this. |
Author: Michelle Beerbower
Grade Level: 8 - 12
Objective: To enhance the students understanding of the Bill of Rights.
Procedures:
Display murals in the classroom or hallway.
Authors: Kristen Tepfenhardt, The New York Times Learning Network, and Tanya Yasmin Chin, The Bank Street College of Education, New York City
Grades: 6-12
Overview: In this lesson, students evaluate current search procedures implemented to fight terrorism and examine constitutional rights to privacy. They then share and defend their opinions about domestic security and civil liberties in an age of terrorism.
Suggested Time Allowance: 1 hour
Objectives: Students will:
Resources/Materials:
Activities/Procedures:
As students enter the classroom, randomly hand an index card to students until all five index cards are distributed. (Based on your class size, you might want to give a card to every fourth or fifth student.) Each student who receives a card reports to the front of the room to the Security Check area and follows the instructions as indicated on his or her index card.
After a few minutes, ask each student to read his or her card aloud, and have each student share his or her thoughts about being selected for this process. Did all students fully comply with the security check? Why or why not? Did they feel that their privacy was being invaded in any way? Now, facilitate a class discussion: How do other students in the class feel about these types of security checks? Would they feel comfortable with this search procedure if it were applied to them in school? On public transportation? In an airport? While entering a mall? Do students think this type of search procedure is effective in stopping potential terrorists? Do students feel that these types of procedures are a violation of their privacy?
Then, ask at least one student in each group to share his or her choice. Encourage students to support their opinions with reasons, facts, and examples. Allow students to challenge one another's ideas.
Extension Activities:
What is the American Civil Liberties Union? What is their mission? What are their goals? What have they done to attain these goals? In what recent situations were they involved, and to what extent did their involvement impact the outcome? Create an informational poster or illustrated timeline with your findings.
Lesson 3 - Handout
In New York, It's Open Bag or Find Exits
Author: Sewell Chan, July 25, 2005
An anxious new era in the life of New York City's subways opened with the morning rush yesterday as the police began widespread searches of bags and packages in a highly visible attempt to protect the busiest transit system in the United States.
At dozens of stations in four of the city's five boroughs, subway riders added a new element to their commuting routines, yielding their belongings to an inspection by a police officer. Some bus and ferry riders were also searched.
Two other transit carriers in the region announced that they, too, would begin random inspections, starting on Monday. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it would conduct searches at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, on the two AirTrain lines at Kennedy and Newark Liberty International Airports, and on the PATH commuter railroad. "People are willing to endure some level of inconvenience to have a higher level of safety," the authority's chairman, Anthony R. Coscia, said in an interview.
New Jersey Transit, the largest statewide transit agency in the country, said it would begin inspections across its train, bus, and light-rail networks. In a statement, Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said the two bomb attacks this month on subways and buses in London made it "necessary to bring a new level of vigilance to our mass transit system." The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subways, said its small police force conducted limited searches yesterday along the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad.
Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, said he could not predict how long the nation's mass transit agencies would remain on high alert, signaled by the color orange. "Part of the discussion of coming off orange will be asking how far to come off, how gradually, whether there should be different levels of alertness for different systems, depending on the threat picture," he said in a telephone interview.
The New York Police Department called the first day of searches a success, but it would not disclose the number of stations searched or the number of officers involved. A spokesman, Deputy Chief Michael Collins, said the searches did not turn up illegal weapons or drugs and did not result in any arrests. Officials said that the searches would continue during the weekend, though at a reduced pace, and that at least one person had refused to allow a search and left.
The presence of officers seemed to vary widely among the 468 subway stations. At 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, a sergeant used a bullhorn to tell passengers, "If you do not agree to inspection, you must exit the system." But at West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village, officers stood by as riders brought oversized backpacks, large rolling suitcases, and lumpy laundry bags into the subway.
The police focused their efforts on monitoring access to the busiest stations during peak hours. Several commanders said they had directed their officers to stop every fifth rider carrying a large bag or package. The searches were mostly orderly, and officials said very few riders refused to comply or exited the subways. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had authorized the searches only minutes before he announced them on Thursday morning, defended his decision while acknowledging that it would be unpopular among some passengers.
"I hope that we have established the right balance here, providing the kind of security we need while not being too intrusive and not violating their rights," he said in his weekly radio program on WABC-AM. "The way we've done this is: You can walk away if you don't want your bag searched; you just can't get on the subway. So we do it outside the turnstile. And there's no profiling."
Mr. Bloomberg pledged that the Police Department would not use race, religion, or national origin in deciding whom to search - and added that it would be unwise to do so. "If we've learned anything, it's that you can't predict what a terrorist looks like," he said. "Terrorists come in all sizes and shapes and forms."
The New York Civil Liberties Union has called the searches unconstitutional, and yesterday its executive director, Donna Lieberman, said the group had received about 25 calls from riders expressing concern.
Chief Collins said the department believed there were legal precedents for such searches, noting that the police had set up traffic checkpoints to randomly screen drivers for intoxication. In a guideline issued on Thursday to top police commanders, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly wrote that officers retained the right to use their normal investigative methods if they had probable cause to suspect someone of a crime.
The methods used by the police were as diverse as the packages that were searched: leather satchels, canvas totes, vinyl knapsacks, plastic laundry bags, and paper shopping bags, as well as aluminum suitcases and cardboard boxes. At Woodlawn-Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, riders like Shauna Murray, 23, were directed to a white plastic table like the ones used at airport security checkpoints. One officer pointed a small black flashlight into Ms. Murray's black Adidas bag, while another made a notation on a sheet of paper. The process took less than 30 seconds.
Lt. John Valentino, a supervisor in the Transit Bureau, said that "every fifth person with a bag or carry-on item" was selected. But that rule broke down when busloads of people swarmed the station entrance about 8 a.m. and as many as 18 people with carry-ons passed directly through the turnstiles within seconds. Then three people in a row were suddenly stopped for searches.
At Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, officers were seen asking riders to show a driver's license or other identification and writing down the personal information. Several of the riders - whose bags were searched but who were not detained or told they had done anything wrong - said in interviews that they felt their privacy had been violated.
"If you want to check my bag, check my bag, but why do you have to take down my personal details?" Shakeel Ahmed, 35, a dentist from Mineola, N.Y., who was on his way to work in Brooklyn, asked in an interview. "Why do they want to know my ID, my address?"
Dr. Ahmed, a Muslim who emigrated from India seven years ago, added that he supported the searches. Police officials later said an apparently overzealous officer had taken the action on his own, without permission from his supervisors, and had been "corrected."
At 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, officers wearing black or white gloves gently unzipped suitcases, lifting clothing and towels and patting the contents underneath. With purses or backpacks, they briefly rifled through papers and notebooks. At Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, selected riders were met by Dakota, a yellow Labrador with a nose for explosives, but Chief Collins said that bomb-sniffing dogs were not being used in substantial numbers. Eve Holbrook, 35, who works at a law firm, submitted to a search at the station without being asked. "It gives me a sense of comfort," she said. "I went up there of my own free will."
At Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan last evening, Amy Lisogorsky, 24, was searched for the second time in the day. "It was fine this morning when I was checked," she said. "Now it's a little frustrating." There were signs that riders were beginning to adjust their habits to minimize the inconvenience. "I go to the gym every day, and I didn't bring my gym bag today," said Shaquille Qureshi, 21, an intern at an investment firm and a Muslim of Pakistani descent. As he waited for a D train in the Bronx, he carried only an umbrella and a newspaper.
The situation was much quieter in the suburbs, even though riders of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's two commuter railroads were told that their bags could be searched at any time. At the Pelham and New Rochelle stations, in Westchester County, no one seemed to be checking bags at the height of the morning rush.
James Murphy, 24, who traveled from Stamford, Conn., to Pelham, said that he was not optimistic about the searches being able to prevent a bombing, but that the policy made him feel safer. "What can it hurt?" he asked.
Mr. Coscia, the Port Authority chairman, said the announcement about the subways on Thursday prompted him to follow suit. "I don't think it was simply a case of following what another agency did," he said. "In this instance, we ended up adopting policies that are pretty similar."
[This article is located at http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20050725monday.html.]
Terrific Technology for Teachers
Ever wonder how the Bill of Rights came to be? Based on historical fact, this fictional tale explores Founding Father George Mason's reason for ultimately not signing the U.S. Constitution.
"I'm Not Signing That! George Mason Stands Up for the Bill of Rights," is full of historical facts and points to ponder. The fictional story was created by young people for young people, and is appropriate for grades 4-7.
The book may be downloaded at http://ktwu.washburn.edu/education/bor/ or copies of the book are available for purchase by contacting Melissa Masoner at mmasoner@carrollsweb.com.
Law Wise is published by the Kansas Bar Association during the school year. The Kansas Bar Foundation, with Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts funding, provides support for this publication. Published free, on request, for teachers or anyone interested in law-related education, it is edited by Crystal Marietta, Pittsburg, (620) 231-5620.
For further information about any projects or articles, contact Ron Keefover, Education and Information Officer of the Office of Judicial Administration, Topeka, (785) 296-4872, or Janessa Akin, Public Services Director of the Kansas Bar Association, Topeka (785) 234-5696.
Law Wise is printed at the Kansas Bar Association, 1200 Southwest Harrison, P.O. Box 1037, Topeka, Kansas 66601-1037.
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