Many people repeat Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quotation that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” President Barack Obama, for one, repeated it often. Where did this quotation come from, and what is its connection to the federal courts?
We recognize December 15 as Bill of Rights Day. President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated this day by proclamation in 1941 to observe and honor the ratification of the first ten amendments to the Unites States Constitution. But how did the Bill of Rights itself come to be?
One of the most important parts of our federal judicial system is the jury. Most people know the role of the trial jury in determining guilt or innocence in a criminal trial and liability in a civil trial. But there is another type of federal jury that is critical to the operation of our federal judiciary—the grand jury.
Federal Courts often encounter disputes where the stakes are high, litigants hold strongly opposed opinions, and emotions run hot. Add to this a variety of sometimes conflicting personalities, and you might expect unsolvable disputes.
On Thursday, September 16, 2021, close to a hundred people came together on the steps of the federal courthouse to celebrate the most basic thing we share as Americans: that together, we are “We the people,” and the Constitution is for all of us.
What do the following fifteen people have in common: Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William McKinley; Senator George McGovern; business innovators Henry Ford, J.C. Penney, and Henry John Heinz; financial advisor Dave Ramsey; talk-show host Larry King; celebrated author Mark Twain; entertainment entrepreneurs Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum; actress Debbie Reynolds; and NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Johnny Unitas?
This month we celebrated Independence Day, our nation’s birthday. The Fourth of July holiday reminds us of the founders’ tremendous civic activism and engagement in forming a new nation. In the years leading up to the decision to separate from England in 1776, they engaged in debates, arguments, assemblies, and public appeals on the pros and cons of separation.
Every year, the Eastern District of Tennessee Civics Education and Outreach Committee partners with local chapters of the Federal Bar Association to sponsor local essay contests for high school students. The contests, which focus on some aspect of civics education, are open to public, private, and home-school high school students in all 41 counties in east Tennessee.
Most United States citizens consider ourselves fortunate to live in a modern, mature democracy. We appreciate the great freedoms and abundant material things our democracy affords us. But while we all know the old adage that freedom is not free, neither is democracy.
A common question raised about the federal courts, especially the Supreme Court, is why judges rule differently in the same or similar cases. Federal judges take an oath to "administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and [to] faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all [their] duties."
