Learning Law in Elementary and High School: Innovating Civics Education for a More Empowered Citizenry

A principal objective of the public school system in a democracy is to promote societal cohesion by way of preparing students for civic engagement. There exists a founding belief that a democratic nation ought to be composed of educated activists, run by innovators, and kept in check by involved citizens. For, indisputably, the democratic experiment—our values, our institutions—can only be upheld anew with each generation on the backs of critique, reinvention, and reinvigoration. But, as so many have mentioned when discussing the civics education paradigm, the increase in educational opportunities and the marked expansion of our school system has not translated into higher numbers of “citizens”—higher levels of civic knowledge and youth participation. Here, we offer a partial solution addressing substantive improvements to the civics paradigm. We argue for augmenting the current learning structure with a push towards learning law young, or else endowing children with a working knowledge of law and its methodologies. To learn law young is to approach and understand the values, rights, duties, obligations, and American questions of citizenship from a different perspective than that currently held in civics classroom, one that is at once more complex and functional. One learns by interrogating constitutional questions underpinning our civic institutions, considering reasoning behind ideological arguments, all while garnering critical analytical skills now exclusively at the disposal of the law student. This is about teaching a new way of thinking, a way of thinking necessary for every citizen today, a way that is currently not routine. The objective of this paper is to obviate the need—and extoll the benefits—of integrating law learning into childhood civics education

The Bench

A facsimile of Hogarth’s own engraving intended to show the difference between CHARACTER and CARACATURA,” this print juxtaposes the images of prominent English judges with exaggerated caricatures in the upper portion. This caricature section, referred to as “the second state” in discourse on the print, is rendered in less detail as it was incomplete when Hogarth died in 1764.https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/pitt-law-art/1013/thumbnail.jp

Litigation Landmines: Exclusionary Zoning and Sober Living Homes

This article delves into the intricate landscape of sober living home ordinances within residential zoning districts, shedding light on exclusionary restrictions and requirements that have triggered extensive and costly discrimination litigation. Providing a concise history of the origins of modern-day sober living homes, the article examines legislative initiatives and ongoing litigation concerning zoning ordinances aimed at regulating these homes in residential neighborhoods. It explores the nuanced use or prohibition of specific terms and conditions within such ordinances and compares historical interpretations of regulatory provisions for recovery residences. The article presents examples of contentious terms and requirements that have fueled litigation, along with recent court interpretations. In addition, it offers recommendations for clearer and simplified provisions while discussing the potential risks associated with more detailed regulation of the internal operations of recovery residences

Cool Tools

Cool Tools information coming soon

Lincoln School Marchers

This event will educate attendees about the legal and historical significance of the Lincoln School Marchers of Hillsboro, Ohio. Gain valuable insights into the profound impact their protest had on education in the immediate aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, which was decided 70 years ago this May. Embedded in this event will be a screening of “The Lincoln School Story,” a compelling short documentary produced by Ohio Humanities, where a group of African American mothers in Hillsboro, Ohio, tried to enroll their children in the local white schools. When the school board refused, they took their case to the streets and the courts. Following the screening, a distinguished panel of community and legal experts will engage in a thought-provoking discussion on both the historic and contemporary implications of Brown v. Board of Education. Don\u27t miss this enriching experience that combines legal discourse with the art of storytelling to illuminate the past and its relevance to the present. Panelists Melvin Barnes, Jr., Ph.D., Historian and Ohio Humanities Program Officer Barnes was born and raised in Toledo and initially joined Ohio Humanities as a summer research fellow in 2019, before rejoining the team permanently as a Program Officer in 2020. In addition to his work at Ohio Humanities, Barnes teaches history at The Ohio State University and has been a guest lecturer at Spellman College. Barnes completed his doctorate in Chinese and East Asian history and African American History. He lives in Clintonville with his wife, young son, and a tuxedo cat named Titus. James Hardiman, Esq., Civil Rights Attorney Hardiman has an extensive career history, including working at Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, office of the Cleveland police prosecutor, national NAACP as special counsel, managing partner of Hardiman, Buchanan, Howland & Trivers, adjunct professor of political science at Baldwin-Wallace University and legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. Marilyn Sanders Mobley, Ph.D., Emerita Professor of English and African American Studies, Case Western Reserve University Marilyn Sanders Mobley is an emerita professor of English and Africana Studies at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) where she served as the university’s first Chief Diversity Officer from 2009-2019. A Toni Morrison scholar, Mobley is the author of Folk Roots and Mythic Wings in Sarah Orne Jewett and Toni Morrison: The Cultural Function of Narrative and “Toni Morrison’s Beloved: The Scandal that Disturbed Domestic Tranquility” in Scandalous Fictions: The Twentieth Century Novel in the Public Sphere. Her forthcoming book is Toni Morrison and the Geopoetics of Place, Race and Be/longing (Temple University Press, 2024). Dr. Carlotta Penn, Daydreamers Press founder and author of Step by Step: How the Lincoln School Marchers Blazed a Trail to Justice Carlotta Penn is the founder of and author at Daydreamers Press. She is a Daydreamer who believes in justice and in the power of arts and literature to activate change in the world. Daydreamers Press is the public vehicle for her personal passions, and commitments. She brings her experience creating as a songwriter, poet and writer, and in teaching and developing community programs nationally and internationally, to her work as lead curator of content and programming at Daydreamers Press

Yahye Herrow v. Attorney General United States of America

Agenc