Community service builds citizenship

Article Abstract:

The conservative Institute for Justice has filed several lawsuits to prevent schools from requiring community service, but the effort is misguided and all five federal courts considering the argument have rejected it. Such programs generally require students to select a voluntary activity and engage in it no more than a few hours a month, providing civic education, career and workplace preparation, and other skills necessary to good citizenship. By likening such requirements to slavery the group cheapens the 13th Amendment.

Volunteerism, Institute for Justice

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No: public service programs are nothing like slavery

Article Abstract:

Public service requirements for public school students instill civil virtues and develop student responsibility, communication, and cooperation. Lawsuits brought by the Institute for Justice have failed to persuade all five courts that have heard them that such programs violate either the 13th Amendment's prohibition of slavery, or parental 'due process' rights. All the lawsuits have accomplished is to intimidate financially struggling school districts from adopting a valuable and worthwhile learning tool.

Laws, regulations and rules, High school students, Social service volunteers, Student volunteers in social service, Student volunteers

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If trade rules had been used in 'Amistad' case

Article Abstract:

The 1841 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, on which Steven Spielberg's film 'Amistad' is based, deals with a conflict persisting into modern times, that between property rights and human rights. Slavery presented this conflict in its most blatant form, and it was resolved only by the Civil War and the 13th Amendment. The federal courts, in the meantime, had to dispense justice in the most unjustifiable circumstances, and the Amistad case was one such instance.

Civil rights, Right of property, Property rights

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