Learn civics through online games
Players assume the role of a law clerk to a U.S. Supreme Court justice. They have to help write the decision in a First Amendment case regarding the wearing of music T-shirts at school. The question is whether a school can ban them or are they protected as student free speech.
“Our Courts” is backed by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor* who said that more people can name an American Idol judge than the three branches of government. “To keep our democracy healthy and vibrant requires sustained participation by an active and informed citizenry.”
A second video game is coming. “Do I have a Right?” will ask students to decide which Amendment will best help a client resolve a problem.
*Justice O’Connor became the first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. This was one hundred and nine years after the same Court ruled in Bradwell v. Illinois (1872) that women could not become lawyers. One of the justices wrote that “The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.”
