Forming a more perfect union by forming a more perfect citizen

Students from Edward C. Reed High School in Sparks will be ably representing Nevada in the national “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” competition in Arlington, Va., this year.

Reed outscored students from five other state schools — two from each of the three congressional districts determined in a regional competition in December — at competition at the Lloyd D. George U.S. Federal Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Saturday.

Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison and I were again among the two dozen judges who gladly volunteered to judge the competition, which is likened to a congressional hearing with testimony and queries from a panel. Students from each school appeared before six panels probing various areas of constitutional history and present-day application.

My group of judges asked about the relationship between the Bill of Rights and natural law philosophy, promoting lots of references to and quotes from John Locke. But the intriguing and difficult part came with our queries about: “Under what circumstances, if any, should the rights of institutions and classes of individuals be given preference over individual rights? Why?” Enough to make a libertarian scream.

This gave the judges an opportunity to ask about human rights related to the street protests in Egypt, about Fifth Amendment takings under imminent domain and even the ObamaCare mandate requiring everyone to purchase health insurance.

Reed’s answers were on point. Student Tyler Glider even quoted from the 10th Amendment and the Lopez decision in which the Supreme Court rejected a Commerce Clause defense of a gun-free school zone law — a decision prominently quoted by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in his opinion declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional.

Though Reed won overall, Bishop Gorman was judged tops in the area I was judging.

Gorman’s Kylie Shaw got points on natural law by John F. Kennedy instead of Locke when she noted “that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

Michael Mehocic scored constitutional, historical, legal and current events points by answering my question about the wisdom of Kelo — the case in which private property was taken so a private company could build a facility that would pay more in taxes and provide jobs — by pointing out the parallel with the imminent domain case only blocks away involving the Pappas family, whose land was taken for the Fremont Street Experience garage. He even opined that it was not fair. (None of the students could answer my follow-up question about what is on the Kelo property today. Answer: Nothing.)

Mathew Shoemaker nailed the ObamaCare question about whether health care is a right by pointing out a right cannot possibly exist where someone else, a doctor, must provide the care.

And there were other equally astute student responses. All of the students had reason to be proud of their performances.

But as we walked down the hall between rounds one of the other judges, attorney Rick Pocker, and I would joke about how one of my pet peeves was not coming up, because in past judging we focused more on the First Amendment, which always causes someone to cite Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ cliché about falsely shouting fire in a theater.

Many of the students would be surprised when I pointed out that Holmes was talking about Charles Schenck, who during World War I distributed pamphlets arguing the draft was unconstitutional because it violated the 13th Amendment prohibition of involuntary servitude. Sounded like free speech and redress of grievances to me.

But we could not finish the day without it surfacing. At the closing ceremonies, in which the final results were

First, Reed High
Second, Bishop Gorman High
Third, Reno High
Honorable Mentions, College of Southern Nevada High School West, Boulder City High and Canyon Springs High

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman addressed the students and said:

It’s enough to make a libertarian scream.