We the Students: Supreme Court Decisions for and About Students

An introduction to constitutional law collects and analyzes Supreme Court cases handed down about high school students.

Brief Biographical Statement of Jamin Raskin

Jamin Raskin is a Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at American University’s Washington College of Law and Co-Director of WCL’s Program on Law and Government.

Professor Raskin is an active public interest and First Amendment lawyer, representing diverse individuals and groups, including ACORN, Greenpeace, the Service Employees International Union and the National Voting Rights Institute. In 1996, he represented Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot in his efforts to be included in the 1996 presidential debates and in 2000 is advising the Green Party’s Ralph Nader.

Raskin successfully represented a group of high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland whose news television show about gay marriage was censored by the Montgomery County school system. The censorship was lifted. He has also been a First Amendment consultant to the Washington office of the ACLU.

Professor Raskin’s new book, We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and about America’s Students,is sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society and is published by CQ Press. The first casebook ever written for high school students by a law professor, We the Students collects and analyzes the 30 most important Supreme Court decisions ever handed down about the rights and responsibilities of high school students.

Reviewing the book in his syndicated column on June 12, 2000, Nat Hentoff called it “extraordinarily clear and compelling” and “the most important book” ever sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical society. Former Judge and Solicitor General Kenneth Starr calls it a “dynamic, riveting introduction” to the Constitution, saying that “civics class will never be the same again.” Douglas Gansler, the State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, Maryland, says that Professor Raskin “has written the bible of the new movement for ‘constitutional literacy.’”

A magna cum laude graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Raskin has been deeply involved in American law and government. He served as an Assistant Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and later as General Counsel to the National Rainbow Coalition under Reverend Jesse Jackson. In 1992 and 1993 he served on President Clinton's Justice Department Transition Team for the Civil Rights Division and has testified frequently before Congress. Raskin has authored dozens of articles and studies in constitutional law and the law of democracy. His popular writings have appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Legal Times, the Nation, California Lawyer, George and numerous other periodicals. Professor Raskin's work on democracy, voting, campaign finance and the political process has been profiled and discussed in the mass media, including the major television networks and National Public Radio, and in journals and periodicals all over America, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is married to Sarah Bloom Raskin and father of Hannah Grace Raskin, age 7, Thomas Bloom Raskin, age 4 and Tabitha Claire Raskin,2.