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Informed Citizens

are Better Citizens

U.S. Supreme Court from Origins to Reforms

U.S. Supreme Court from Origins to Reforms

by Jodi L. Miller A national survey, conducted by Marquette Law School and published in November 2022, revealed that 56% of the public disapprove of the job that the U.S. Supreme Court is doing. A Gallup poll in September 2022 put the number at 58% disapproval. Ken I....
Updating an Old Act

Updating an Old Act

by Jodi L. Miller Election rules and procedures in the United States can be complicated. That is especially true in presidential election years because we don’t have one presidential election, we essentially have 50 separate ones. In the U.S. Constitution, Article II,...
Are States “Labs of Democracy?” Yes and No

Are States “Labs of Democracy?” Yes and No

by Jodi L. Miller In civics education, generally the U.S. Constitution gets all the attention, but every state has its own constitution too and some of them pre-date the federal constitution. An often-quoted dissenting opinion, written in 1932 by U.S. Supreme Court...
Freedom of Speech Vital to Democracy

Freedom of Speech Vital to Democracy

by Jodi L. Miller Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote in a majority opinion that freedom of speech “is the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom.” Other countries don’t enjoy the same right to free speech that Americans do....
Freedom of the Press Guards Against Tyranny

Freedom of the Press Guards Against Tyranny

by Jodi L. Miller Thomas Jefferson once said, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” He also said, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into...