Do they teach Constitutional Civics in school anymore? When I was in High Scool in the seventies, they wouldn't let you graduate until you had taken and passed a "Constitution Test" I seem to remember having to pass an easier version in 8th grade as well. Did they discontinue that practice? If so, when?

I graduated HS in '98. My civics class, (called government) was terrible, but that was mostly the fault of the teacher. This was an AP level class (the regular kids didn't even have a gov't class), and ostensibly geared toward the AP exam. There were no qualifying exams, and most viewed the class as a joke. Classes such as chemistry or calculus were seen as much more important to personal success (which is all that mattered).

My HS was a private-catholic institution, and the teacher of this course was a clergyman from a teaching order. He had an axe to grind regarding his own, twisted political leanings, and used the class for his own personal soapbox.

As you might imagine, we got very little out of the class, other than a vocabulary lesson about the system of checks and balances, and how a bill becomes a law. There wasn't much in the curriculum regarding the constitutional framework, other than learning it as terminology. The dynamics regarding the framework of the Constitutional and how that effected our laws, and our rights weren't really examined, and in my opinion, that's the whole key to being an informed citizen of a democracy right there.

I also remember the teacher explicitly saying that we didn't need to know any Supreme Court cases for the AP Exam, and then, lo and behold, "Marbury vs. Madison," "Plessy vs. Ferguson," "Brown v. Board of Education" were all essay questions.

I worked on the Exam, sorely lacked the instruction needed to take it, and got a 2... no college credit. The only kids who did well on the exam from our class were the ones who smuggled their gov't books into the exam and cheated...

God Bless America, eh?

[Mr. Tibby]: So... let's also go after anyone who sanctioned any war from the last 70 years.

[Arne]: Didn't read the post, didja? Because no one but you has suggested any such thing....

Cheers,

Ooh, right on the noggin. that's gotta hurt!

As long as their are laws, there will be people thinking of ways to break them. No law will ever be "tamper" proof. What is needed are vigilant legislators who stand up for the rule of law, and re-draft legislation when it is clear that the vultures are getting the run of it. Unfortunately, those have been lacking. And in our two-party system, when the opposition colludes, there's really not much to stop them from ramming through tyrannical laws.

In those cases, it falls back to the basic principles of democracy, that a well-informed voting populace will be able to vote in politicians that take account of the nation's best interests as a whole.

Even THAT basic premise has failed us of late. The American population is, by-and-large, neither well-educated or well-informed.

All communications involving the "MoneyBomb," in whatever context, are now automatically on the NSA's "reasonably suspected of harboring links to terrorism" list. Might be a little tougher to challenge the establishment's policies now that they can see your every move.

Should've called it the "MoneyFreedom."

And to the letter writer who revels in blasting gangsta rap while driving through the "countryside" (whatever he means by "countryside" - the rural "heartland," or just Westchester Co.?): believe it or not, kids in rural America are listening to rap more than anything else these days. So, your too-cool-for-school attempts at being subversive aren't as successful as you'd probably like to believe.

But don't worry, we'll still keep producing food for you and the other city folk.

I'd rather you didn't produce food; a sizeable portion of my tax dollars goes to massive agricultural subsidies for the American agricultural bohemoths. It can be grown a lot cheaper in other places if not for this political interference.

Regardless, not all the food I eat is grown here. I only eat sushi.

Screw indie rock.

Whenever I'm rolling through the countryside, I like to play the most urban g-funk from the early 90's possible. It helps reassure me that I am as far from country as possible.

Plus I like the contrast provided by listening to "Tha Shizznit" as you roll across flat rural plains, or through virgin northern forests at 80+ MPH.

In light of the darkness surrounding the actual procedures used in domestic spying, I wondered if the FISA court judges who resigned in protest ever commented publicly on their reasons for doing so.

I've never read anything about it, other than the fact that they resigned.

In light of Jon Eisenberg's article today on the FISA claims in the Al-Haramain litigation, I wonder what kind of fire and brimstone type threats they leveled at those guys before they resigned?

Unbelievable. To try and litigate a case under that sort of pressure from opposing counsel blows my mind.

It would be great if the ABA would keep a list of all DOJ Attorneys under the Bush Administration and black ball them after this. But that probably won't happen; Partners at Kirkland, Sidley, Jones Day, Piper, etc. read articles like this and think "Dang, that's some mighty fine adversarial skills theys larnin' under W. Bush's DOJ. We gotta hire us some of that in 2009!"

Can't wait until the "Bob Jones School of Law" model for litigating becomes standard practice in the US.

The Race to the Bottom countinues to pick up speed...