Thursday, Sept. 17, is Constitution Day, recognizing the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in 1787. This year, we are celebrating by visiting schools to engage with students, joining more than 350 lawyers and judges across Washington who have made a similar commitment. It’s an ambitious and important partnership — and there’s still plenty of time to join us.
We both work in the legal system and experience the Constitution’s real-world application and promise every day. We took very different roads to get here. Debra grew up in Eastern Washington, raised her family in a small farm district and spent more than a decade serving on her local school board. She practiced law and taught constitutional law at Gonzaga University, then became the first woman from Eastern Washington to sit on the Washington Supreme Court and to serve as Chief Justice.
Francis grew up in Nigeria, where as a boy he was briefly detained with his brother and grandfather during a coup-era curfew nobody had told them about. It was power with no rule of law behind it — an early, unwanted lesson in what it feels like when the law shows up as something to fear rather than something that protects you. That’s what put Francis on the road to becoming a public defender. And he’s spent more than two decades trying to make sure the people he represents in Spokane experience the law as justice — work that includes helping start the city’s Community Court.
Different roads. Same conclusion: The Constitution is more than a governing document. It’s a promise and road map for a free and democratic society. As judges and lawyers, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution, and we take that oath seriously. One of our most basic professional responsibilities is to help educate our communities about the rule of law and to strive to improve the legal system.
And there’s no better place for that work to start than in the classroom.
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — a fitting moment to elevate the status of Constitution Day programming from a federal mandate for public schools, over 2,200 statewide, to an opportunity to bring the nation’s founding document to life for the next generation of civics leaders.
There’s urgency for this kind of real-world connection. On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 22% of eighth graders scored proficient in civics, and 31% scored below basic, the first decline since the assessment began in 1998. Scores don’t improve much with age: Nearly four in five American adults can name freedom of speech as a First Amendment right — but less than half can name any of the other four.
What to do? Let’s start by investing in our students right now, this Constitution Day, and continue the habit throughout the school year.
To our legal colleagues across Washington: If you haven’t yet made plans to visit a classroom on or around Constitution Day, there’s still time: visit wsba.org/classroom-ambassadors.
If you’re a teacher, principal or parent: Invite us in! We’ll come with a grade-appropriate lesson in hand and require nothing more than the time you can give us: visit courts.wa.gov/education/lawyers/ to make a request.
Civic learning builds a stronger democracy. The students we meet this fall will soon be voters. Some, we hope, will be inspired to become lawyers or judges themselves — including in the small towns and underserved communities that need them most. Whatever career path they pursue, these students will be better equipped to hold us more accountable.
The rule of law is the foundation everything else stands on — the Constitution’s promise that everyone is equal under the law and judges can decide cases fairly without fear or favor. Lawyers and judges across Washington are already defending it, in courtrooms and beyond. Showing up in a classroom is one more way we strive to create a more perfect union.
We followed very different roads to become officers of the legal system, and we are committed to paving the way for the next generation. We’re asking Washington’s legal community and teachers to join us. Let’s meet in honor of Constitution Day and strengthen our democracy one classroom, one student, at a time.
