Vol. 9, No. 1, Pg. 46. Citizen Participation in the Legal System.

• Author: By John C. Few

South Carolina Lawyer

1997.

Vol. 9, No. 1, Pg. 46.

Citizen Participation in the Legal System

46Citizen Participation IN THE LEGAL SYSTEMBy John C. FewIn January, Greenville lawyer John C. Few of Few & Few, received the ABA's prestigious Judge Edward R. Finch Law Day Speech Award. The award recognizes the best speech given by a lawyer in the United States during Law Day. In celebration of Independence Day, Few's award-winning speech reminds us why all citizens need to understand the true meaning of the freedoms granted in the Constitution.

Community Law Week is about learning, sharing the knowledge and understanding of our legal system with others, so that we can all be participants in, and beneficiaries of, the legal system, the entire government, for the governmental process works only through the consistent intelligent involvement of everyday people. It's a system that works for and is run by you. I want to explore that system, but more importantly, our involvement in the system, and what that can mean to us all.

I mentioned "intelligent" involvement. In order to participate effectively, we must participate intelligently. In order to participate intelligently, we must understand the system, and we must understand the rights we have under it. Let's see if we can answer a question that I believe is very important. In order to put the question in the proper context, let's use our imagination.

Let's imagine that we are on a trip to another country where the people do not enjoy liberty as we do. Let's say to China, and let's imagine that one night during our trip we are eating dinner in a restaurant with our fellow travelers. Our waiter, we learn during our dinner, is a student at a Chinese university, a young Chinese man who craves to learn about and enjoy the freedom that he has heard is enjoyed in America. We have befriended our waiter, and he has overheard our conversation about various matters important to us. Later in the evening, when the crowd at the restaurant has begun to thin out, but we have lingered at the table talking and having fun, the waiter steals a moment away from his work and asks if he can sit down. When he does, he eagerly asks us "What is it like to be an American, what is it like to be free?" What is our answer? Do we have one?

Before we try to answer it, let's look at some of the rights to which our waiter was referring. The first amendment to our Constitution says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...