By Stewart Harris
In 1822 James Madison wrote:
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
That’s among the many reasons why I keep coming back to Colonial Williamsburg, where “the future may learn from the past.” And that’s why, every year at about this time, I come back to volunteer for the best educational program that I have ever encountered: We the People, sponsored nationally by the Center for Civic Education.
As the name implies, We the People (WTP) is all about the Constitution. But it’s not the dull civics class that you may (reluctantly) recall from your own school daze. While WTP is part of the curriculum of some schools, it’s also an extracurricular activity (yes, some kids would rather study the Constitution than play video games) and, ultimately, it’s a nationwide competition. That’s where old folks like me come in.
I’m a law professor. Most of the time I teach law students. Sometimes I teach a college course or two on things like the First Amendment or National Security Law. But my favorite teaching occurs when I serve as a judge at WTP, at the regional, state and national levels. The Williamsburg Lodge hosted Virginia’s state finals the last weekend in January.
Like a civics class, the WTP competition sounds dull – it’s a “simulated congressional hearing.” Kids on C-Span? Oh, boy!
But it’s so much more. After a very brief presentation on one of six possible topics, the students put down their notes and the contest really begins. Someone like me looks at these fresh-faced children, some as young as 11, and starts asking them questions. Tough questions. Questions about things like abortion, gay marriage, drug laws and drone strikes.
That last topic — drone strikes — came up a lot during my particular hearings this year, which covered the president’s powers pursuant to Article II. The president is commander-in-chief, but only Congress can declare war. So does the president have the power to order drone strikes in Yemen? I don’t recall a declaration of war against Yemen – do you? Uh, oh.
Another big topic in my hearings, which also dealt with the powers of the Supreme Court, was whether we should kick the justices off of the bench after a certain number of years. One team wanted to do so. So I asked this group of teenagers: “What do you have against us old folks?” And the fun began.
I pressed them on their position, asking whether the Supreme Court would lose its independence, not to mention a good part of its experience and maturity, if their proposal was adopted.
I was merciless. I frowned at them. I furrowed my brow.
But, to my great chagrin, the students seemed not at all frightened of me. They came back with a good answer to every question. They were so good, in fact, that they earned a perfect score.
I wasn’t the only one who had fun that day. Shortly after the competition, I received an email from one of the contestants:
Prof. Harris,
When I heard Friday morning that we would be evaluated by perhaps the most challenging judge at Virginia WTP, I said to someone in my unit, “It’ll be nice to receive a perfect score from the toughest scorer.” It was, therefore, a vindication for us to see your feedback this week. Please know how much your demeanor and line of questioning helped to focus and relax my colleagues and me; we had by far the most fun with your panel of judges, and that momentum continued throughout the day. . . .
For the record, I personally oppose term limits for Supreme Court justices and arrived planning to argue such. Mostly because the argument was pretty fun to make, we opted on a lark to promote term limits in our opening statement, which worked out such that I would be presenting our main line of reasoning. I worried initially that such a personal incongruity could muddle our presentation, but I ultimately decided to run with it. So, when you questioned me on the subject, my two-handed approach was weeks in the making—and the process could not have turned out any better. . . .
Thank you for dedicating your time to judging Unit IV last week. We the People was a phenomenal experience.
Regards,
William
Wow. I don’t receive emails like that every day – well-written, thoughtful, polite. And from a teenager.
If, as Madison wrote, “knowledge will forever govern ignorance,” well, then, I won’t mind being governed, in the not-too-distant future, by young people like William.
In addition to his day job as a law professor, Stewart Harris is the creator and host of the public radio show Your Weekly Constitutional, underwritten by the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier.
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