Oregon Legal Research BlogThe contest’s essay topic for 2022: The First Amendment and the Schoolhouse Gate: Students’ Free Speech Rights
High school students who live within U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit jurisdiction may enter the contest.
Articles Tagged with Civics
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Oregon Law Will Require High School Students Receive Civics Education Before They Graduate
Read on for a bit of Oregon “Civics Education” from me:
Senate Bill 513 A (2021) requires that Oregon high school students receive one half-credit in civics education prior to graduation. It has been approved by both legislative chambers and will (we assume) be signed by the Governor. (Visit the Governor’s homepage, look under the Administration tab, and click on the Bills Signed link for a list.)
How this law will be implemented will be fun, um, interesting to watch. It appears everyone is fairly realistic about the speed of this process. The bill says: “Applies to high school diplomas awarded on or after January 1, 2026.”
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Job: Classroom Law Project (CLP): Is Looking for a Program Manager
Portland, Oregon: CLASSROOM LAW PROJECT is looking for a PROGRAM MANAGER
Excerpt: “POSITION DESCRIPTION
The Program Manager (PM) will lead the collaborative CLP team effort to develop and deliver our Mock Trial program, including statewide student competitions and showcases, as well as related professional development workshops, and collaboration with teachers to support their implementation of these active-learning strategies in their classrooms. In addition, the PM will serve as the instructor for the Street Law seminar at Lewis & Clark Law School, which places law students in high school classrooms to teach lessons in practical law. The PM will also oversee our annual Law Day Conference for Students and We the Readers Book Club for teachers, and contribute to development and implementation of our major annual events for teachers, the Oregon Civics Conference for Teachers and the Summer Institute, as well as our online Educator Resource Community. They will provide active support across all CLP programs including teacher, student, and volunteer recruitment, relationship development within the legal and education communities, and representation of CLP and its civics education mission in a variety of public venues.
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Law Day, April 26, 2021 (Oregon)
The Classroom Law Project will be presenting the 2021 Law Day Conference for Students as a virtual event April 26, 2021.
“The 2021 Law Day Conference for Students will take place online the week of April 26-30, 2021.
We are offering a slate of resources to help facilitate Law Day engagement with your students, including:
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Homeschooling, Civics Education, and Extraterrestrials
Who said learning about how laws are made can’t be any fun? Clearly, that person never looked at the Classroom Law Project’s Bill of Rights for Extraterrestrials Lesson Plan for grades 4-12. (It would probably be a lot of fun for grown-ups, too.)
Visit the Resources page of the Classroom Law Project and look for the “Extraterrestrials and Your Rights!” lesson, including handouts you can download.
“In this engaging, interactive strategy, introduce the Bill of Rights, Natural Rights, and other constitutional concepts to your students – as a response to extraterrestrials landing in Oregon! On the sidebar are the components you need for this activity and feel free to adjust them to fit your classroom needs. Let us know if you have any questions or would like us to come and try this out with you or for your classroom – it’s a lot of fun, and will encourage fantastic conversation from elementary through college level.” [Visit the Extraterrestrials and Your Rights! page for more information.]
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Teachers and Parents: Civics Digital Resources for Remote Learning
Oregon’s Classroom Law Project (CLP) has created a list of: Civics Digital Resources for Remote Learning
“During this unprecedented time when teachers must adjust to providing digital resources and connections for their students, Classroom Law Project is committed to providing and curating links to sites, lessons, ideas, and resources that might help you teach remotely. We will update this page as we continue to find resources….” [Link to CLP Civics Resources page.]
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Oregon Attorney General’s Public Records Law Reform Task Force
Visit the Attorney General’s Public Records Law Reform Task Force for meeting Agendas, Minutes, and related documents:
“On October 23, 2015, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced the formation of the Attorney General’s Public Records Law Reform Task Force, a group designed to review and recommend improvements to Oregon’s public records laws….” [Link to Task Force website.]
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How to Change Your Voter Party-Affiliation Registration in Oregon
It’s easy to register to vote in Oregon, online, in person, by mail.
Visit the Oregon Secretary of State Elections homepage or the Register to Vote page directly.
It’s also easy to update your contact information, e.g. address, name, etc.
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Access to Justice? “Change afoot in American civil justice system” (Legal Rebels)
“Change afoot in American civil justice system,” Jul 22, 2014, by Rebecca Love Kourlis (former justice of the Colorado Supreme Court).
Excerpt:
“…. Due process in the American civil justice system is like sweet green grass: It is essential to our lifeblood, but too much can be deadly. Beginning in 2008, the profession began to sound the alarm that the civil justice system was indeed in danger of foundering. The ABA Section of Litigation was part of that chorus. More than 3,000 members of the section participated in a survey (PDF), which found that:
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Tyler Goes to Court to Avenge a Videogame-Controller Wrong: A Judicial Civics Lesson Coloring-Book
Visit the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Justice Case Files website to read this hilarious coloring-book story:
Justice Case File 4: The Case of the Broken Controller is a (PDF) narrative coloring book available to download for free. (Note: the PDF at the NCSC site is almost 8 MB. It can be optimized to under 4 MB if you have Adobe.)
“The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) launched a public awareness campaign several years ago to educate the public about how the courts work. The central effort of this campaign was to develop a series of graphic novels, called Justice Case Files, which engage the reader while giving insight into how judges make decisions, how the courts protect the public, and why courts are so important to a democratic society….”