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Hernando Today

The Building Blocks Of American Law

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By KYLE MARTIN, Hernando Today

Published: February 5, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - What freedoms afforded by the Bill of Rights do Hernando High students cherish the most?

About 30 of them chose these five out of 10 after a class on Monday about the Constitutional building blocks of American law:
Freedom of speech
The right to bear arms
Protection from cruel and unusual punishment Freedom of religion
Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures
The selections quickly touched off a spirited debate in the campus library where the students had gathered for a lecture from Circuit Judge Stephen Rushing and local attorney Frank Miller.

Within 10 minutes it became clear that the Bill of Rights is not a pick-and-choose sort of document. That's the point.

"All of these hinge on each other," Miller said.

The presentation was part of the Florida Supreme Court's initiative to bring the fundamentals of the first 10 Amendments to juniors and seniors.

Called Justice Teaching, the program provides instructors with exercises to get high school students thinking about the privileges American citizens claim.

Rushing boiled it down to this: The Bill of Rights was designed "to protect the people from their own government."

The class kicked off with a brief synopsis of the Revolutionary War and the conditions the colonists put up with under King George III. Miller explained why the Constitution's framers found it important to protect the people's rights to criticize leaders and have the right to legal counsel in a trial.

"We have a bill of rights because people stood up and demanded it," Miller said.

Rushing bridged the historical perspective with the modern day application of the Bill of Rights. Some believe the Constitution is a living document open to change, the judge said, while others feel it should be accepted verbatim.

After giving a rundown of the 10 amendments, the presentation concluded with a scenario:

An invading country has decided that there are too many liberties and the people must whittle it down to five. The students broke into groups to decide which ones should stay.

After making their selection, a debate broke out into whether it's worth having protection from cruel and unusual punishment, but not the right to an attorney.

A parallel argument questioned the point of freedom of speech without the right to peacefully assemble.

One student chimed in with an answer that exposed the Internet age they lived in: "We'll do it on MySpace."

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com

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