The Legal Eagle Lowdown is a companion blog for the Foundation’s legal newspaper for kids, The Legal Eagle. All articles published in The Legal Eagle, (complete with discussion questions) are also posted to the blog so they may be used as individual handouts.
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The Legal Eagle Lowdown
Combatting “Fake News” with Media Literacy
by Jodi L. Miller In this era of “fake news,” the likelihood of coming across misinformation and disinformation while searching the Internet is high. Whether it’s a news story, a photo or a video,...
Blowing the Whistle on Criminal Activity
by Maria Wood Throughout history, many crimes have been uncovered, not by law enforcement, but by ordinary citizens with a sense of civic responsibility. These citizens are sometimes called...
When Whistleblowing Leads to Moviemaking
There have been countless whistleblowers throughout U.S. history. In most of these cases the public will probably never know their names, or if they do will soon forget them. Most whistleblowers...
Stopping the Spread of COVID-19? There’s an App for That
by Maria Wood The concept of contact tracing is not new, having been used for centuries to halt the spread of disease, with the first known use in the 1500s during the outbreak of the bubonic...
Battling Stay-at-Home Orders in the Land of the Free
by Michael Barbella Among the many things that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light is that staying at home all the time is no fun and everyone has a different idea of what “essential” means....
Support Growing for Paying College Athletes
by Michael Barbella In 2019, college athletics generated nearly $19 billion for colleges and universities, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit...
Mailing in the Votes
by Michael Barbella Voting in the 2020 presidential election could prove challenging this year as the unrelenting coronavirus pandemic fuels fear of going to the polls in person. In order to allay...
Sowing Seeds of Doubt to Suppress the Youth Vote
by Jodi L. Miller There are nearly 17 million students enrolled in colleges and universities across the United States. Some of these students are passionate about political causes and feel strongly...
High-Tech Not Always Best When It Comes to Voting
by Phyllis Raybin Emert Can you imagine voting in 2020 the way people did in some parts of 19th century America? Men (and it was only white men) swore to a judge that they had not voted before and...
Settling the Question of Faithless Electors
by Maria Wood On November 3, 2020, Americans will once again cast their ballots in a presidential election. Those ballots will be cast, not directly for a presidential candidate, but for a slate of...
Vote Locally If You Want to Make a Difference
by Jodi L. Miller In November 2018, voters exercised their right and responsibility to vote in mid-term elections—at least some of them did. Voter participation usually goes down when the election...
Is Repealing Citizens United the Answer?
by Alice Popovici In the trailer for the documentary “Dark Money,” investigative reporter John Adams draws dollar signs on a diagram to show how money from large corporations is used to influence...