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LAW WISE     [Kansas Bar Foundation logo]

Published by the Kansas Bar Association
Editor: Crystal Marietta, Attorney at Law, Pittsburg
Coordinators: Ron Keefover, Kansas Supreme Court and Janessa Akin, Kansas Bar Association

October 2004

Greetings from the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Bar Association. This is the second edition of Law Wise for the 2004-2005 school year. The theme for this edition of Law Wise is geared toward the upcoming election and what students need to know about the Right to Vote.

In this issue:

Calendar of Events [calendar graphic]

2004

October 19-21 . . . . . Kansas Court of Appeals in Session - Kansas Judicial Center - Topeka
October 19-21 . . . . . Kansas Court of Appeals in Session - Old Sedgwick County Courthouse - Wichita
November 29 . . . . . . Kansas Supreme Court in Session
December 3. . . . . . . .IOLTA Grant Applications Due
February 11. . . . . . . . Mock Trial Registration Deadline
March 4-5 . . . . . . . . . Regional Mock Trial Tournament
April 1-2. . . . . . . . . . . State Mock Trial Tournament
May 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . Law Day
May 5-7 . . . . . . . . . . . National Mock Trial Tournament

Rights of Citizens:
The Right to Vote

Arguably, the most important right citizens have is the right to vote. Voting is the basis of a representative democracy. By voting, the people have a voice in government. The people decide who will represent them in the government. Officials can be voted in or out of office. Every person’s vote counts the same as another person’s vote.

Each citizen can register to vote in his/her community. Usually, there is a requirement that the citizen has lived in the state for a certain period of time. Each state has the power to decide which citizens in the state can vote. However, some voting rights are guaranteed by the Constitution. This means that states cannot deny the right to vote to anyone

  1. Who is at least 18 years of age;
  2. Because of his/her race, color, or gender;
  3. Because she/he has not paid a voting or poll tax; and
  4. In national elections for President and Vice President.

States have the power to deny the right to vote to citizens who have been convicted of serious crimes or who are not able to make rational decisions. States cannot require citizens to pass a reading and writing test before granting the right to vote.

This precious right, the right to vote, was hard won by many of our nation's citizens. Today, active citizenship demands that Americans cast a vote to have their voice heard in the political arena. After the bitter struggle to gain the right to vote for all of our citizens, one might wonder why so many Americans do not exercise this right. In this issue of Law Wise we explore who has been allowed to vote through this nation’s history and why it is so important to get involved.

A portion of this article was taken from http://bensguide.gpo.gov/6-8/citizenship/rights2.html, which is a service of the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.

Courts Welcome Students

The Kansas Court of Appeals, an 11-member intermediate appellate court, sits in three-judge panels. The court is pleased to have students attend the hearings. The Court of Appeals will next be hearing cases in Topeka, Olathe, and Wichita November 16-17. Two three-judge panels will sit in Wichita, one at the U.S. Courthouse, and the other at the “old” Sedgwick County Courthouse. Three-member panels will also hear appeals in the Judicial Center in Topeka and at the Johnson County Courthouse, Olathe.

The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the state and includes seven members. Students are also welcome at oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The high court holds its hearings only in Topeka. The Supreme Court will be in session the week of November 29.

If you have any questions concerning the Kansas appellate courts or if you would like to bring your class to either the Kansas Supreme Court or the Kansas Court of Appeals, teachers may contact Ron Keefover, Education and Information Officer of the Office of Judicial Administration, 301 West 10th Avenue, Topeka, Kansas 66612-1507, (785) 296-4872, for assistance. You can also contact Mr. Keefover via e-mail at keefoverr@kscourts.org.

logo Law Day 2005
The American Jury: We the People in Action

Law Day is an opportunity for all Americans to celebrate and enjoy our freedoms. The jury is the embodiment of democracy. We entrust juries – small bodies of ordinary men and women – with decisions that involve the liberties and property of defendants. In doing so, we confirm our faith in the ability of people to make just and wise decisions and that is the very definition of democracy. We also see the jury system as an opportunity to educate Americans in law, legal processes, and decision-making in a democracy.

On this Law Day, we can help people understand the jury system, and appreciate their role in making it effective.

For more information, or to order a Law Day planning guide, please visit http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/ where you can find additional resources for your classroom and find out what Law Day events are taking place in your neighborhood.

Lesson Plan #1:  
The Expansion of Voting Rights

Grade Level: 7-12

By examining the expansion of the right to vote, the following activity highlights the notion of the United States Constitution as a living document. Eight of the seventeen amendments adopted since the ratification of the Bill of Rights have involved voting rights. Numerous Supreme Court decisions as well as federal legislation (most notably the Voting Rights Act) have attempted to break down barriers to voting.

This lesson is designed as an introductory activity to provide students with an overview of the historical development of voting rights. In addition, the activity provides students with the opportunity to begin exploring what the right to vote means in America.

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Method:

  1. Introduce the topic of voting rights, stressing its historical development.
  2. Distribute copies of the Handout on the Right to Vote and ask students to read the first paragraph on the law and its legislative history. (All handouts are included in their entirety at the end of each lesson plan. They can also be accessed by going to the lesson plan on the web and following the links).
  3. Divide the class into small groups (three to five students) and ask each group to decide whether or not the action in each example is a denial of the right to vote. Tell each group that it will be expected to give reasons for each of its answers. Groups may wish to appoint one spokesperson for the entire exercise or may wish to have a different spokesperson provide the answer and an accompanying rationale for each case study. Allow 10 minutes for groups to reach their decisions.
  4. Record each groups’ responses on the board and note groups’ rationales where appropriate.
  5. Debrief the activity by reviewing the actual outcome of each case as well as its basis (e.g., constitutional amendment, Voting Rights Act, Supreme Court decision). The outcome of examples one, two, and four will probably not generate a great deal of controversy. Tell students that that the basis for each of these cases is relatively recent. Examples three and five should generate class discussion. You may wish to share Handout 2 Voting Rights Exercise (Answer Key) with students at this time.
  6. You may also wish to guide this discussion to a more general question of what the right to vote means. Additional debriefing or follow-up lessons can focus on current controversies relating to voting, such as how to conduct the census, apportionment as a way of increasing minority representation, techniques of making registration easier (such as motor-voter), etc.
  7. Another follow-up activity is to have students read excerpts from the Voting Rights Act and/or selected Supreme Court decisions (recommended: South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 1966).

This lesson plan was written by Richard Roe and Peter deLacy, attorneys/educators on the staff of the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law. It first appeared in Update on Law-Related Education published by the American Bar Association.

It can be accessed on the ABA’s Division of Public Education website at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/lessons/hs_vote.html.

Lesson Plan #1: Handout #1: The Right to Vote

Assume the United States Congress passed the following law. The right to vote shall not be denied." The report accompanying the legislation explains that Congress wanted to encourage the greatest amount of voter turnout and to eliminate discrimination on the basis of race and gender, since blacks and women had been denied the right to vote in the past. Moreover, the right to vote is a fundamental principle in our democratic form of government.

Directions: For each of the following examples, decide whether the law has been violated or not. Briefly explain your answer.

  1. A state requires a person to be at least 21 years old to vote. Sandy Kent is 20 years old and is told she cannot vote.
  2. A city charges a $5.00 poll tax on all persons of voting age. Those who do not pay the tax cannot vote. The tax money is used to improve the school system in the city. Steve Eller does not pay the $5.00 and is not allowed to vote.
  3. Astate passes a law that denies convicted felons the right to vote until five years after completion of their full sentences. Anita Jackson, serving a ten-year sentence for committing a felony, is told she cannot vote.
  4. A state requires everyone who registers to vote to pass a literacy test. More difficult tests are given to blacks than to whites. fifty-five percent of the blacks fail the tests while only 10 percent of the whites fail. David Anderson, an African-American man who failed the test, is not allowed to vote.
  5. A state requires a person to be a resident for at least a year before he or she can vote. Dana Brown has been a resident for six months and is not allowed to vote.

 

Lesson Plan #1: Handout #2: Voting Rights Exercise (Answer Key)

This may be used as the answer key for The Right to Vote handout.

  1. The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1971, guarantees the right to vote to citizens who are eighteen years and older.
  2. The U.S. Supreme Court in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), struck down a similar poll tax as a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court said, “Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth nor to paying or not paying this or any other tax.” The Twenty-fourth Amendment abolished poll taxes in all federal elections.
  3. This case is based on Richardson v. Ramire z, 418 U.S. 24 (1974), in which the Supreme Court held that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit a state from disenfranchising convicted felons who had completed their sentence and paroles. The Court relied heavily on Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment, which allows for the abridgement of the franchise for “participation in rebellion or other crime.”
  4. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (as amended in 1970, 1975, and 1982) bans literacy tests as a requirement of voting. The Supreme Court in South Carolina v. Katzenbach upheld the constitutionality of this provision of the Voting Rights Act.
  5. The Supreme Court in Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330 (1972), struck down a Tennessee law similar to this example. The Court said that residency requirements were not valid “unless the State can demonstrate that such laws are ‘necessary to promote a compelling government interest.’”

Lesson Plan #2:  
How the Law Regulates Who May Vote

Grade Level: 7-9

Objectives: During your session, students will:

Time needed: One class period to do exercises through step 3 or 4; two periods to do it all.

Materials Needed: Student Handouts 1 & 2. Handouts are included at end of lesson and are also accessible at the web address listed at the end of the lesson plan.

Procedures:

  1. Explain to students that voting is one way people make choices and express their wishes. Write the following sentence on the board: “It is important to vote because ...” Ask students to complete the sentence. Discuss responses with the class.
  2. Distribute Handout 1 “Who Votes for Student Council President?”. Tell students to read each scenario and then circle the answer that indicates whether or not they would let that person vote in the school election.
  3. Post the signs YES and NO at opposite ends of the classroom. Now read each scenario from Handout 1 aloud. Ask students to stand under the sign with the answer they circled. Then ask them to explain their positions. Use the following questions to clarify students' positions.
  4. If time permits, or if you want to extend this into another class period, have groups of no more than four students work together to write rules that explain the qualifications for voting in the school elections. If students have difficulty getting started on their rules, give them the following open-ended sentence: Before a person may vote in the school election, the person must ... Have a volunteer from each group record the rules on chart paper. Ask each group to share its list with the other groups.
  5. Brainstorm with students a list of people they think should not be allowed to vote in elections.
  6. Distribute Handout 2 Constitutional Guidelines for Voting and discuss the information on it. You may wish to discuss with students the following information.

    Each state sets voter qualifications, but because of guidelines set by the U.S. Constitution and decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, these laws are similar. Each state requires voters to live within that state before they may vote. Some states require voters to live there 30 days, while others only require voters to prove they live in the state.

    All states require that you be a citizen of the United States before you may vote. You are a citizen if you were born in the United States or if you were made a citizen by law.

    All states allow people with disabilities to vote. The law says that polls must be usable by everyone. If the poll cannot be used by a person with a disability, the state must find another way for that person to vote. Most states have absentee ballots and curbside voting for people with disabilities.

    Every state denies the vote to certain people. No state allows people in mental hospitals or people who the law says are mentally unfit to vote. Nearly all states deny the vote to persons who have been convicted of a felony (this does not apply to persons treated in the juvenile system). Some states also deny the vote to persons who have been dishonorably discharged from military service.

Adapted from an article by Mary C. Larkin, associate director of the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law (NICEL) in Washington, D.C. The article first appeared in Update on Law-Related Education, published by the American Bar Association. It can be found on the ABA website at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/lessons/79_vote.html.

 

Lesson #2: Handout #1: Who Votes for Student Council President?

Imagine that your school is going to elect a president of the student council. You are a member of the school's election committee. Your job is to make sure that only those who are qualified get to vote. The following people want to vote. Decide whether you will let them vote. Tell why or why not.

  1. Shanika attends your school. She is a B student and wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  2. Sean attends another high school, but he knows someone running for president and wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No

  3. Elizabeth attends your school. She is really different: her hair is green. Elizabeth wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  4. Today is Peter's first day at this school. He hasn't met anyone and doesn't know who is running in the election. Peter wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  5. Margaret attends your school. She is blind and can't see the ballot, but she wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  6. Louis attends your school. He can't read, but he wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  7. Kim attends your school but is at home sick. Kim won't be well before the election, but she wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  8. Jon attends your school, but he has been suspended. He wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No
  9. Joby has just returned to your school from the State Training School for Boys, where he spent one year for armed robbery. He wants to vote.
    __ Yes
    __ No

 

Lesson #2: Handout #2: Constitutional Guidelines for Voting

  1. Any person who votes in state elections may also vote in federal elections. The Seventeenth Amendment declares that any person who votes for "the most numerous branch" of its own legislature is also qualified to vote for U.S. senators and representatives.
  2. No state may deny a person the right to vote because of his or her race or color. The Fifteenth Amendment says that no state may deprive any person of the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
  3. No state may deny a person the right to vote because he or she is a female or a male. The Nineteenth Amendment forbids states from depriving a person of the right to vote because of his or her sex.
  4. No state may deny the right to vote to a person who is at least 18 years old because of his or her age. The Twenty-sixth Amendment states that citizens 18 years old (or older) may vote. This amendment does not prevent a state from allowing citizens younger than 18 years old from voting. The amendment does prohibit states from setting a maximum voting age.
  5. No state may require a voter to pay a tax before voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment eliminates the poll tax. The poll tax began in Florida in 1889 and spread to 11 Southern states as a way to discourage African Americans from voting.

    For many years, in many states, there was a literacy requirement for voting. This requirement was also used to prevent African Americans and other groups from voting. The first literacy requirement was adopted in Connecticut to limit the voting rights of Irish Catholic immigrants. Congress banned all literacy tests in the Voting Rights Act of 1970.

LawMatters logo The American Bar Association offers a free newsletter that contains information on lawrelated education. Law Matters, which reports on developments, ideas, programs, and resources in the field of public education about the law, is published three times each year. Every issue includes a special focus on a contemporary legal issue; news about important developments in law and education; and reviews and updates on print, video, multimedia, and online resources.

To order Law Matters, go to http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawmatters/subscribe.html and fill out the subscription form.

KBA to Sponsor Mock Trial

Every spring, the Kansas Bar Association Young Lawyers Section (KBA YLS) organizes a statewide mock trial competition for high school students. This year’s program will offer regional tournaments across the state, culminating into a state tournament in Wichita, Kansas. The winner of the state tournament will advance to the national tournament.

The National High School Mock Trial competition began in 1984. It offers students simulated courtroom experience with real lawyers who volunteer to help coach the teams. Additionally, lawyers and legal professionals act as the judge and jury during the tournaments. Students in your debate, forensics, government, speech, drama or gifted programs would find this tournament worthwhile and exciting. Even if your school has never participated before, we encourage you to seriously consider entering at least one team from your school.

Teams for this competition consist of six to eight students. There is no limit on the number of teams a school may enter in the tournament. Registration fees are minimal - $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 regional tournaments will take place on March 4-5, 2005 in Johnson County and Wichita, and the state tournament will occur on April 1-2, 2005 in Wichita. The registration deadline for the competition is February 11, 2005. The case materials and rules will be available soon on the Internet at www.ksbar.org. A notice will be sent out to schools that register for the competition.

Amy Fellows is the coordinator for this year’s tournament. Amy can be reached at (316) 630-8100 or by e-mail at adfellows@twgfirm.com.

Resources at the Law-Related Education Inventory

The Law-Related Education Inventory has the following items which might be useful in working with students to learn about voting:

  1. How We Got The Vote: American Documents Series. This video is geared for middle and high school students and includes personal interviews with surviving suffragettes and chronicles the struggle for women’s voting rights. Library number 324.623/H83.
  2. Why Bother Voting? This video is designed to talk to high school students in their own language to encourage them to vote and that they can make a difference. Library number 324.2/W622b.
  3. Your Vote Counts: State and Local Government. This filmstrip is for high school students and outlines the basic structures and functions of state, county, and city governments. Library number 320.2/Y88.

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 law-related 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/.

   Terrific Technology for Teachers

  1. MTV and artists such as P. Diddy have become very involved in encouraging young people to vote with their campaigns entitled respectively “Choose or Lose” and “Vote or Die.” You can access their websites at http://www.mtv.com/chooseorlose/ and http://www.citizenchange.com.
  2. The Learning Page is a website sponsored by the Library of Congress which can be found at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/election/home.html. It has a Teacher Resource page on voting at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/election/voters.html.
  3. An article appeared on the New York Times website on September 27, 2004 titled, “A Big Increase of New Voters in Swing States,” which is accompanied by a lesson plan on the same subject. If interested, go to http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20040927monday.html.
  4. Scholastic’s Teacher Home Page has a great article in their archives about ordinary citizens making extraordinary changes in the area of voting rights. Unfortunately, at the time of publication, we were unable to get authority to link to their home page. If interested, go to Scholastic’s website and search under vote.


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.

Please help us update our database files. Print out and complete the Newsletter subscription form and return to: Kansas Bar Association, PO Box 1037, Topeka, KS 66601-1037, or call (785) 234-5696.