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The American Bar Association Division for Public Education’s mission
is to promote public understanding of law and its role in society. We
provide national leadership for law-related and civic education efforts
in the United States, conduct educational programs, develop resources,
provide technical assistance and information clearinghouse services,
present awards, and foster partnerships among bar associations, courts,
educational institutions, civic organizations and others. Among our public
education programs and publications are Law Day, the American Bar Association Legal Guide book series, Preview of U.S. Supreme Court Cases, and
the Silver
Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts.
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Browse by Tags
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I'm writing this blog from Washington, DC, where our Division will be hosting a summer teacher institute with the Federal Judicial Center. Now in its third year, the "Federal Trials and Great Debates in U.S. History" summer institute engages teachers [Read More]
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In United States v. Williams , a solid majority of the Court found that key provisions of the unfortunately named “ Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003” are a model of clarity when compared to past [Read More]
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I’ve been talking back to my television and radio a lot these days. Truth be told, I’ve been yelling at my television and radio a lot these days. My frustration level has risen and my tolerance level is spiraling downward. As the primaries drag on, much [Read More]
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This year’s Law Day theme is “The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity.” Among the resources included in the planning guide is a classroom lesson called “No Vehicles in the Park.” As it turns out, “No Vehicles” has quite an interesting history – and, in effect, is also celebrating its golden anniversary this year. [Read More]
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Next month, the Supreme Court will be wading into one of our nation’s deepest cultural divides, which runs through the Second Amendment’s right “to keep and bear arms.” Head scarves and firearms might seem like apples and oranges, but the cultural divides that commentators have perceived along the head scarf issue in Turkey are remarkably similar to cultural divides that are perceived along the firearms issue in the United States: urban against rural, progressive against conservative, “elites” against “ordinary folk.” [Read More]
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Your (possible) Second Amendment right to “bear arms,” your Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, your Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against you … Interesting issues all, and all are embodied in unusual [Read More]
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For decades, educators and activists have been working to improve the educational system in the United States. The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation was enacted in 2001 in response to disparities in student achievement. Going back to the [Read More]
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“Lawyers” practice law, but they also seem to have often found their way into other professions and fields of endeavor—whether through calculation or happenstance. This is even the case in the seemingly unrelated fields of entertainment and the arts. It’s interesting to consider if—and how—their legal background might have affected their other pursuits. How did their legal training influence their creative process, the techniques they used, and the substantive issues they considered?
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Not too many years ago, many of us would have been surprised to hear a nominee for Attorney General of the United States being questioned about his views on torture. Today, not so much. The question of torture—how we define it, whether we engage in it, whether we “render” suspects to other nations for torture abroad—has become a regular topic of speculation and conversation. [Read More]
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Even though t he Supreme Court so far has granted certiorari in only 28 new cases, there is no shortage of important issues awaiting the opening of the new October term. For one thing , a long and robust conversation between the three branches of government [Read More]
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Immigration was in the news again this week as Elvira Arellano was deported to Mexico by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while her eight-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, remained behind, being cared for by the church that was providing Arellano [Read More]
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This week American Bar Association President Karen J. Mathis is presenting the Association’s 50th annual Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts. In 1958 ABA President Charles S. Rhyne presented the first Silver Gavels “to recognize outstanding contributions to public information and understanding of the roles of law and courts in our society.” In this post, I’m taking a selective look back at 50 years of Silver Gavel Awards, focusing on the category of legal drama from the media of film and television. Taken together, the set of Silver Gavel Award-winning dramas presents quite a fascinating history of popular culture. They can offer us insights into prevailing attitudes towards law and lawyers during the past half-century. Moreover, they also reveal something about the changing video culture through which legal issues have been dramatized since the late 1950s. [Read More]
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According to Chief Justice Roberts, the biggest problem with decisions that are loaded with multiple dissents (and concurrences that sometimes overlap and sometimes don’t) is not that they are difficult to read and understand – although they are. No, the biggest problem, he says, is that “it’s bad, long-term, if people identify the rule of law with how individual justices vote.” Therefore it would be good, the Chief Justice told The Atlantic, “to have a commitment on the part of the Court to acting as a Court, rather than being more concerned about the consistency and coherency of an individual judicial record.” [Read More]
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“We always joked that Jimmy Stewart’s going to play him in the movie. He’s the picture of rectitude – a charming, engaging, funny guy, but one who set a tone for the office about doing the right thing, not necessarily about winning every case.” So said Steven R. Peiken, describing former U.S. deputy attorney general James B. Comey, with whom Mr. Peiken worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, in an article that appeared on Thursday, May 17, in the New York Times. [Read More]
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We’ll be celebrating the national observance of Law Day ( www.lawday.org ) on May 1. Issuing the first presidential proclamation in 1958, Dwight Eisenhower characterized Law Day as a “day of national dedication to the principle of government under laws.” [Read More]
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