The Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law celebrated its eleventh annual Constitution Day Project this September. Each year, volunteers teach challenging constitutional questions in ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ high schools to commemorate the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution. 

This year’s Constitution Day curriculum covered the right to privacy and offered students the opportunity to discuss same-sex and interracial marriage, the right to contraception, and the recent Dobbs decision. “We hope high school students will think about how the Constitution impacts their lives, often in ways they never realized. This year’s topic is particularly poignant not just for youth but for everyone – how and why should our private lives be subjected to government intervention?” commented the Project’s manager and co-director of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Law's Clinical Programs, Professor . 

One teacher shared that, after Constitution Day, one of her students and the student’s father “had a conversation about the topic and, [despite coming] from very different perspectives,” they were able to “have a conversation that was based in facts” as a result of the lesson. 

Students “really enjoyed the topic and left feeling like they better understood the issue and the stakes of what could happen in the future,” reported another teacher. Volunteers were impressed by how much students already knew about the Constitution and by their thoughtful questions.

The Center has expressed gratitude to this year's volunteers, whose “dedication to bringing the Constitution alive in high school classrooms allows us to have these hard conversations,” added Professor Robinson. 

The Byron R. White Center's director, Professor remarked, “This kind of civic education and engagement is critical to our democracy.”

If you are interested in getting involved with next year’s Constitution Day Project, please fill out this form: .

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Who should be allowed to vote?

This question will be the opener to lessons being taught in high school classrooms across the state through September 23 as part of the Constitution Day Project offered by the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Law School.

Students, alumni, and local attorneys volunteer for the annual initiative, hosted by ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law. This year they’ll be visiting ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ schools everywhere from Glenwood Springs to Wray, Parker, Longmont, Fort Collins, Denver, and beyond. Each year’s lesson focuses on a different theme.

“After students are prompted to think about who should be allowed to vote in elections, they will then learn about the history of voting rights in the United States,” said Melissa Hart, law professor and director of the White Center. “We then discuss several cases in which restrictions on voting have been challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment and end with the students considering a hypothetical voter ID law.”

The lesson plan was created by law students with the guidance of several high school civics teachers and Hart. Last year’s lesson plan focused on how the Constitution interacts with anti-discrimination laws.

“This is a great opportunity to get outside of the law school and be involved in local communities,” said Lydia Lulkin ('18), a law student and research fellow at the White Center. “The law students and attorneys who volunteer are genuinely interested and excited to have the chance to teach high school students about the Constitution. The hypothetical cases also give high school students a glimpse into thinking like a lawyer.”

Constitution Day is the annual commemoration of the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the United States Constitution.

Since the Constitution Day Project was launched in 2011, the White Center has sent hundreds of law students, alumni and local attorneys to hundreds of high school classrooms across the state. The project is supported in part by a ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder Outreach Award.

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In recognition of national Constitution Day, nearly 100 students, faculty and alumni of the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder Law School will teach a lesson on the First Amendment and online bullying in high school classrooms throughout ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Sept. 15-26.

Constitution Day is the annual commemoration of the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the United States Constitution, and the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law sponsors the lessons as part of its Constitution Day Project.

The volunteer students, faculty and alumni will visit classrooms in Aurora, Buena Vista, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Glenwood Springs, Greeley, Kremmling, Thornton and other locations. They will present an interactive lesson focused on the structure of the Constitution, the details of the First Amendment and Supreme Court cases concerning the First Amendment and online bullying. After reviewing the law, high school students will be guided through a debate about a hypothetical case involving the First Amendment and online bullying.

The lesson plan was created by law students with the guidance of several high school civics teachers and law Professor Melissa Hart, director of the Byron R. White Center.

“It has been wonderful to watch this program grow, both expanding to new parts of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ and adding wonderful new student and attorney presenters every year,” Hart said. “This year’s First Amendment lesson creates a concrete opportunity to think about how the Constitution applies to the very real and serious problem of bullying through social media.”

Congress recognized Sept. 17 as a day of national observance beginning in 2004 and requires all schools receiving federal funding to provide educational programming pertaining to the Constitution.

Since the Constitution Day Project was launched at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder in 2011, the Byron R. White Center has sent more than 250 law students, alumni and local attorneys to more than 300 state high school classrooms. The project is supported, in part, by a ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder Outreach Award.

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The White Center’s ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Law Constitution Day Project celebrated Constitution Day, September 17, by teaching high school students about the Constitution. In its second year, the Constitution Day Project, brought 80 ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Law students and alumni, 30 local attorneys, and several ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Law faculty to over 100 high school classrooms around the state of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ to give a presentation about the Fourth Amendment. The dedicated volunteers visited high schools throughout the Denver-Boulder area, and some traveled as far as Carbondale, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Springs, Glenwood Springs, Greeley, Fort Collins, Watkins, and Wray.

The lesson plan, which was created by the White Center and vetted by Denver Public School teachers, focused on the Fourth Amendment and how students’ rights change while they are at school. At the end of the presentation students were given the opportunity to apply the legal concepts they had learned to a hypothetical case involving a student’s expectation of privacy in the contents of his cell phone.

Ms. Kaitlyn Gentert, a social studies teacher at Erie High School, explained that she participated in the project because she teaches the Constitutional foundation of our nation’s political system in class. Describing the presentation as “engaging,” “instructional,” and “invaluable for her students,” Gentert stated that she looks forward to having presenters come back to her class next year.

Gentert’s positive evaluation of the project is not unique. According to a survey administered by the White Center, 100 percent of teachers who responded indicated that they would participate in the project again next year and would recommend it to a colleague.

Presenters also had overwhelmingly positive feedback about their experiences. Almost all presenters who responded to a White Center survey indicated that they plan to volunteer again next year.

For Jocelyn Jenks (’12), who has volunteered as a presenter since the project launched in September 2011, teaching high school students about the Constitution is something she considers to be her professional responsibility. “I plan to continue my involvement with the Constitution Day Project,” Jenks explained, “because I believe that an important part of being a lawyer is giving back to your community.”

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