Students from 10 public and private Montgomery and Robertson County high schools will hear arguments in three state Supreme Court cases Friday, April 27, as participants in a program that educates young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.
The 580 students and their teachers will attend a special Supreme Court session at the Montgomery County Court Center. Each of three groups of students will hear oral arguments in one actual case, beginning at 8:40 a.m., followed by a question and answer session with the attorneys for both sides in the cases.
Chief Justice William M. Barker and Justices Janice M. Holder, Cornelia A. Clark and Gary R. Wade will be joined by retired Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, to hear the cases. Drowota will sit as a special justice because the five-member court has a vacancy.
Schools participating in SCALES - an acronym for the Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students – are Clarksville High School, Northeast High School, East Robertson High School, Northwest High School, Springfield High School, Unity Christian Academy, Jo Byrns, Montgomery Central High School, Montgomery Christian Academy and Rossview High School.
Since the first SCALES program in 1995, more than 17,000 students across the state have participated.
The students and teachers will join the Supreme Court, local judges, attorneys and other guests for lunch and a brief program. The meal is being sponsored locally.
Teachers whose classes are involved in the project attended a three-hour professional development session March 22, led by Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Thomas Woodall. The session included a review of cases to be argued at SCALES. The teachers also were provided with notebooks of materials to use in their classrooms, including suggested activities, and SCALES Project handbooks for each student.
"The Tennessee Supreme Court is committed to SCALES because we believe the program plays a role in shaping well-informed good citizens,” the chief justice said. “These young people will inherit the system and should understand how it works and how it affects them. Every time we conduct SCALES and I have an opportunity to visit with the students, it renews my faith that our nation’s future is in very good hands.”
Chancellor Laurence McMillan coordinated the project in the 19th Judicial District. He and other local judges and attorneys met with teachers at the professional development session to schedule classroom visits to review the cases and issues to be considered by the Supreme Court. After justices rule in the cases, copies of the court's opinions will be provided to the classes and posted on the court system website at www.tncourts.gov.
Issues in the cases students will hear include whether the Court of Appeals erred in ordering a father to pay back child support to his adult children rather than to their mother; whether a law defining carjacking as “the taking of a motor vehicle from the possession of another” applies when a vehicle is taken after a victim has left the car; and whether admission of expert testimony concerning DNA testing violated the defendant’s confrontation rights since the expert had not performed the testing.