Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
We spend as a nation five cents on civics education and $50 on STEM education per student. That difference is dramatic, and the lack of quality in our teaching of civics education has been proven by every matrix imaginable.
Schools are just not teaching it, and our kids are not learning it. And if they don’t learn it, we’re not going to keep our republic. So that is my greatest fear: that people don’t understand our system of government. They don’t understand what the First Amendment means.
Some of my colleagues don’t either, by the way. And I’m not joking about that.
— Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in remarks reported by the Tulsa World, explaining why the nation’s lack of civics education — and Americans’ resulting failure to understand their system of government — is her “greatest fear.” Sotomayor went on to criticize the fringe unitary executive theory, warning that it threatens the constitutional system of checks and balances. “That’s not what was created [by the Constitution],” she said. “We created a government with checks and balances, and the unitary executive theory is overturning that balance.”
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
The post Sonia Sotomayor Thinks Her Colleagues Need A Civics Lesson To Save The Republic appeared first on Above the Law.
Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
We spend as a nation five cents on civics education and $50 on STEM education per student. That difference is dramatic, and the lack of quality in our teaching of civics education has been proven by every matrix imaginable.
Schools are just not teaching it, and our kids are not learning it. And if they don’t learn it, we’re not going to keep our republic. So that is my greatest fear: that people don’t understand our system of government. They don’t understand what the First Amendment means.
Some of my colleagues don’t either, by the way. And I’m not joking about that.
— Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in remarks reported by the Tulsa World, explaining why the nation’s lack of civics education — and Americans’ resulting failure to understand their system of government — is her “greatest fear.” Sotomayor went on to criticize the fringe unitary executive theory, warning that it threatens the constitutional system of checks and balances. “That’s not what was created [by the Constitution],” she said. “We created a government with checks and balances, and the unitary executive theory is overturning that balance.”
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
