Mr. President and esteemed legislators,
Thank you for suspending the writ of habeas corpus. No, really! Thank you! You see, I teach 8th grade social studies and normally, trying to get 13 year olds to care about the Articles of Confederation, the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, the Constitution, Bill of Rights...pretty much anything in civics, is not the easiest job in the world.
Think back a few years Mr. Bush and our fine senators. Some of you probably nodded off in class, less than under whelmed by the teacher's dissection of the Seven Principles of the Constitution or her rambling on about the importance of Washington's Farewell Address.
I know that in TV movies the teachers always ENGAGE the class, usually by some dramatic stunt. Some of the TV teachers dress up and act out history. Frankly though, I've been spending so much time trying to help our school meet AYP by reviewing math and language arts so that our school isn't taken over (as per the mandates of NCLB) that I haven't been able to inject massive amounts of pizzazz into the students' introduction to Jacksonian Democracy.
Then along you came, suspending that pesky old writ from Article Nine. I'm entirely sure that I wouldn't have gotten much play this semester from Article Nine because, you know, it's got the Latin words inside and sometimes my kids can barely process English. But I digress.
When they came to class today I reminded them that I had told them, that the Constitution is a living thing and requires care and also that someday they would care about the Constitution as much as I did but not at such a freakily teacherish level. They remembered. So then I told them that they had lost one of their Constitutional guarantees-the writ of habeas corpus. Of course, the Latin was meaningless at that point but don't EVER tell a 13 year old that you're taking something away from them.
We dissected the article and put it into words that we all understood and I threw in a bit about the history of the right going back to 1302 when people were being thrown into the Tower of London and into dungeons. Those facts might be a bit muddied (history wonks don't crucify me please) but they worked for my audience because they like dungeons.
OMG! Lights were going on! "Miss, you mean they can take people off the streets and just lock them up?" "Oh yes. As a matter of fact, they already have." Short discussion about Guantanamo, Abu Gahrib, and rendition flights to Syria and Egypt. Ohhhhh! Room now full of outraged 13 year olds. "Miss, that's not right!" "They shouldn't be able to do that!" Indeed.
So we diagrammed the check and balance system (do you folks in Washington remember that lesson? Hmmmm, I thought not.) The kids figured out that even though the legislature passed the order and the executive signed it, there was still one more government power left to weigh in. Do you know who that is? Yep, the judiciary.
Now, this is where it got really fun. I swore everyone in as a justice and they formed some mini Supreme Courts and set about deliberating the constitutionality of your order. They all thought it was wrong but I made them use the legal words and find support for their arguments in the Constitution. To be realistic and fair, I presented your argument for them.
Aren't you going to say that we were invaded on 9/11 and terrorists are still here, or trying to get in here, or suspected to be talking about trying to get in here, or yelling hurtful things at us from their own countries? Something like that? And we're being invaded from the southern border by millions of potentially dangerous illegals? Is that the gist of it? So my mini justices hashed it out and presented their rulings.
Whew! I've gotta say that if the real court goes the way of our middle school courts, you're in big trouble. With the exception of one dissenting justice who thought it was a good idea to suspend the writ, (and he is always contrary for the hell of it) all of the justices struck down your order as unconstitutional. They disagreed with the notion that we are either under invasion or experiencing rebellion. They expressed concern over the loss of basic rights as guaranteed in the First Amendment (read it again by the way, it seems like you're not familiar with it) and they feared that prejudiced officials could lock up people based on looks, or affiliation. Um, well, they didn't say affiliation, they said "who people hang out with" but you know exactly what they meant. One sharp justice even pointed out that passing an order like this could get people angry and lead to "acting up." I would listen to him if I were you because he's in anger management group so he knows what he's talking about.
Well, gotta go do schoolwork now. Thanks again for suspending the writ of habeas corpus and giving my students an opportunity to see government in action. I think you've made the argument about participating in our democracy FAR BETTER than I ever have in class. Good luck with the grown up Supreme Court, we'll be following the process and watching to see if a bunch of kids anticipated the ruling. Oh, some of them want to know how much judges make and what you have to do to be one. Yea!
We still have many months left in class and are looking forward to seeing what happens when the balance of power shifts in the legislature (they are totally clear on the Great Compromise by the way and are interested in finding out if one or both houses will change.) If things get really bad for you, we'll make the most of it and learn about the impeachment process right along with you!
Yours in Civics,
Teacher X