BY Mike Magee MD
Occasions over the previous 12 months clearly have confirmed that we’re a “work in progress” at the same time as we stubbornly affirm our good intentions to create a society dedicated to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
With the Dobbs’ resolution, our Supreme Court docket has unleashed long-abandoned regressive state laws designed to strengthen selective patriarchy and undermine the soundness and confidence of America’s girls and households. Because of this, our nation’s well being professionals, and the sufferers they look after, probably discover themselves “on the flawed facet of the regulation.”
It calls to thoughts the well-worn phrase of moms all over the place to their bossy youngsters, “Who died and left you boss?”
Since our former President, on the eve of his newest indictment, determined to ship a message to North Carolina Republican supporters this previous weekend, claiming that he was engaged within the “remaining battle” with “corrupt” forces, most particularly the “Deep State” that was “out to get him,” I made a decision to reality examine his claims with the children of North Carolina.
North Carolina’s Okay-12 lesson plan, titled “The Rule of Law,” begins with the Teddy Roosevelt quote, “No man is above the regulation, and no man is beneath it” from his 1903 State of the Union handle.
Within the very first paragraph, the plan affirms that regulation is key to societal well being stating:
“Day-after-day, we’re touched by guidelines and legal guidelines. They pervade each facet of our lives, from touring on the street to procuring on the mall. On this lesson, college students will discover the rule of regulation in American democracy and its affect on each particular person. By way of class dialogue and function play, college students will acquire an understanding of:
- what the rule of regulation means by way of American authorities,
- the features legal guidelines play in our society, and
- the function all residents and group members, from a scholar to the President, play in adhering to and upholding the rule of regulation.”
The plan cues up questions that college students might want to handle, together with:
- “From when and the place does our system of regulation originate?”
- “What features do legal guidelines serve in our society?”
- “What function does our authorities’s separation of powers play in making certain adherence to the rule of regulation?”
- “Why is an impartial judiciary basic to the rule of regulation?”
- “How would possibly our society be completely different if we had no legal guidelines?”
A bit additional on, college students are knowledgeable that:
“The rule of regulation is principally an settlement that everybody will play by the foundations. This permits us to get pleasure from a extra peaceable and secure existence. The rule of regulation additionally ensures the safety of sure rights for every of us. Ideally, the rule of regulation applies equally to everybody, which means you’re handled pretty and equally, underneath the identical algorithm, no matter who you’re.”
The curricular plan then explores legal guidelines themselves serving to college students to uncover these insights:
“How do legal guidelines have an effect on every of us? What features do legal guidelines serve in our society? Guarantee college students focus on the next features of legal guidelines:
1.“Legal guidelines function requirements of conduct and dictate the methods folks ought to behave and what actions are permitted or prohibited underneath sure situations (e.g., ingesting underneath age, driving, rushing, and so on.)
2. Legal guidelines keep order, guarantee predictability, and supply safety (e.g., they require that folks drive on a sure facet of the street; they require that folks pay for providers rendered.)
3. Many legal guidelines in America grant and defend explicit particular person rights and freedoms, guarantee equality, and advocate for the widespread good.
4. Legal guidelines additionally assure sure advantages to residents (e.g., faculties, well being providers, and so on.)
5. Legal guidelines assign obligations to residents (e.g., paying taxes.)
6. Legal guidelines outline what duties the federal government will carry out and may also restrict the ability of governmental officers.
7. Legal guidelines can facilitate completely different types of change (e.g., poisonous waste disposal, anti-discrimination, prohibition of spousal abuse, and so on.)
8. Legal guidelines are used to handle completely different types of battle, counting on courts, attorneys, and judges for such.
9. In abstract, legal guidelines serve many various functions. Ideally, legal guidelines needs to be properly designed to make sure justice; they need to be designed in order that the common citizen can interpret, perceive, and thus comply with them.”
Lastly there’s a homework task. College students are supplied with a replica of chapter 28 in Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s “The Majesty of the Law,” to learn.
In follow-up, the trainer is instructed to ask college students: “When Justice O’Connor states, ‘A nation’s success or failure in reaching democracy is judged partially by how properly it responds to these on the backside and the margins of the social order,’ what message was she conveying and the way does it relate to the rule of regulation?”
Mike Magee is a Medical Historian and creator of CODE BLUE: Inside the Medical-Industrial Complex.
