Lawyers, Let’s Share Our Passion for Constitutional Democracy, 0517 COBJ, Vol. 46 No. 5 Pg. 15

46 Colo.Law. 15

Lawyers, Let’s Share Our Passion for Constitutional Democracy

Vol. 46, No. 5 [Page 15]

The Colorado Lawyer

May, 2017

The SideBar

Lawyers, Let’s Share Our Passion for Constitutional Democracy

Here are four legal puzzlers: (1) An African-American student wants to attend the same school as white children. Can she? (2) A man is charged with burglary, but he can’t afford a lawyer. Should the state give him one for free? (3) Two men pass a worthless check and are convicted of misdemeanors. Can the state take away their right to vote because of those convictions? (4) Can states outlaw interracial marriage?

The answers are obvious—now. But that’s only because we have the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and nearly 150 years of Supreme Court rulings interpreting it.

Most Americans have no idea what the 14^th Amendment is or how it affects their lives. But we do. And our job as lawyers is to defend individuals’ rights under the Constitution and to explain that great document to the public.

That’s the idea behind Law Day. Every year on May 1, lawyers across the country engage their communities and rally behind the rule of law. This year, the theme of Law Day is “The 14^th Amendment: Transforming American Democracy”—one of the most-litigated but least-known of all the constitutional amendments.

For more than a century, the 14th Amendment has been the legal basis for many major Supreme Court decisions, including those that desegregated schools (Brown v. Board of Education) and ensured counsel for criminal defendants (Gideon v. Wainwright).

The first section of the 14^th Amendment—the part that’s most often litigated—states:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

“The reason we have the 14th Amendment,” said former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, “is to provide the courts with the opportunity to override the will of the people when the will of the people discriminates against a segment of our society.”

This year, lawyers, judges and...