The Christian Right opposes the inclusion of sexual orientation in school policies, charging that the schools are legitimating and promoting homosexuality. The arguments have moved past the trite, "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," to claims of violations of parental rights and the First Amendment, often positioning…

Free speech in American higher education was sorely tested by three bizarre events in the waning days of September and another incident in early October. Each one has potentially grave implications for free expression and academic freedom, and thus merits closer scrutiny. The first event was the extension, then withdrawal and eventual…

In this article, the author describes the experiences middle school students on a field trip to the new Constitution in Action Learning Lab in the Boeing Learning Center at the National Archives can expect. There, middle school students take on the roles of archivists and researchers collecting and analyzing primary sources from the holdings of…

Academic Freedom is a sacrosanct value on American university campuses. Virtually all research institutions, public and private, have explicitly adopted some form of the American Association of University Professors' 1940 "Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure" or the organization's the 1915 "Declaration of…

This commentary invites Americans to confront what these authors view as the travesty that typically passes for literacy instruction for older youth in the United States who struggle with reading. In too many U.S. schools, these young people face an impoverished curriculum, receiving literacy instruction that is ill suited to their needs, or…

Amy Jordan addresses the need to balance the media industry's potentially important contributions to the healthy development of America's children against the consequences of excessive and age-inappropriate media exposure. Much of the philosophical tension regarding how much say the government should have about media content and delivery stems…

Two recent federal court cases have addressed the constitutionality of using sexual surveys in public schools. This article compares these cases with an earlier case dealing with the same issue but reaching different results. This article also describes the constitutional rights of parents to educate their children and the school's rights to…

Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

The necessity of immunity of parliament and its Members has led to determine and assure particular privilege in the Constitutions or ordinary laws in the great majority of countries. This legal institution is to provide freedom of speech and to maintain the independence of representatives in the exercise of their duties without undue interference…

In this article, the author discusses the enforcement of "hate speech" codes and confirms research that considers why U.S. colleges and universities continue to promulgate student disciplinary rules prohibiting expression that "subordinates" others or is "demeaning, offensive, or hateful." Such continued adherence to…

This September, Oxford University Press is publishing "Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can't End the Battle Over Guns." Written by Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, "Out of Range" explores competing interpretations of the Second Amendment and discusses how the entanglement of…

The democratic aim of American education is to provide "all" students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become informed, effective, and responsible citizens. Like civic education itself, literacy education can be embraced by all teachers across all disciplines. There are strategies that all teachers can use to help address…

The democratic aim of American education is to provide "all" students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become informed, effective, and responsible citizens. Like civic education itself, literacy education can be embraced by all teachers across all disciplines. There are strategies that all teachers can use to help address…

Columnist George Will and others have questioned the continuing need for a federal civil rights commission, because civil rights protections have been on the books since 1964. The chairman of the Commission, Gerald Reynolds, here responds that practitioners of critical legal theory, advocates of the Akaka-Secession bill, some proponents of…

In this article, the author discusses how a school district in Modesto, California deals with religious diversity. Modesto requires that every 9th-grader in the district enroll in a semester-long world religions course. Ninth grade made sense--students were old enough to handle the subject material, and the emphasis on religious diversity happened…