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Show Judge Dmrham Addresses CHS CLEARFIELD - High school students need not feel they're wasting their time by participating in student government. gov-ernment. THE PRLNCIPALS learned there convert readily into the goings-on from industry to the marble halls of Congress, emphasized Christine Durham, Utah's first female supreme court judge. She spoke recently to a group of studentbody officers from the Wasatch Front. "There are a lot of lessons to be learned as you experience that electoral process first hand," she said, speaking of elections underway among the officers. "If you're alert, you'll be exposed and learn lessons of leadership, power and influence in the proper uses of government." SHE STRESSED the power and importance the Constitution Constitu-tion has had, not only in the United States, but around the wond as a model for govern ments. Explaining briefly what that document means she explained, ex-plained, "It means a government govern-ment in which the individual holds all power. Imagine what it would be like if your peers would be able to control all the decision-making. "That kind of power seems to corrupt people. You can see what would happen," she went on, explaining the Constitution Con-stitution doesn't allow any one person or group to hold all the power. The three branches of government, executive or the presidential, congressional and judicial, were noted. QUOTING from Rex Lee, former dean of the Brigham Young University Law School and now U.S. Solicitor General, Gener-al, she told the students, "A constitution means the automatic auto-matic check against any attempt by a government official offi-cial to overstep the bounds of authority. "It means the right to criticize criti-cize any official, even the pres ident, without fear of reprisal. It means the right to have and practice religious beliefs. It means a government that must deal with its people according to a minimum standard of equality and fairness. It means a government whose powers are derived from the people and whose ultimate powers are exercised by the people." FURTHER explaining affect of the Constitution, she quoted further, "Maybe this is all the Constitution really means: the allocation between government govern-ment entities and the protection protec-tion of individual rights against the exercise of those powers." She said further it's also a protector of abuses of power, such as not allowing police to smash your door down in the middle of the night, demanding materials or hauling you physically phy-sically away. AN INSPITE of the power the Constitution holds in the normal American flow of things, such as allowing people to travel where they will, take what job they might or do what they wish, within bounds, she expressed a deep concern. "A few years ago I read a national poll where people were contacted and asked to give their approval or disapproval dis-approval to a series of principals princip-als identified as proposed amendments to the Constitution. Constitu-tion. A high percentage disapproved dis-approved of the principals that were enunciated. The principals princip-als weren't proposed amend-ments-they were in fact the Bill of Rights." YET, A majority of those polled expressed disapproval, she continued. "It's bad enough they didn't approve of the Bill of Rights, basically the cornerstone of their individual liberty. Even worse, they don't know where these principals prin-cipals come from." She quickly listed those first 10 amendments, granting freedom free-dom of religion, speech, assembly, press and due pro cess, or the "requirement that before your property or your liberty or anything of value can be taken, there has to be a process pro-cess that ensures that process will be fair" such as compensation compen-sation for property taken when a freeway's built. ADDRESSING the Judiciary, Judici-ary, she emphasized the autonomy auton-omy built into it-where judges aren't elected, forcing them to bow to those who supported them, for instance. It further allows their ability to settle disputes dis-putes that arise between the congressional or legislative and executive branches of government. gov-ernment. Sometimes judges are asked to end all crimes, and Mrs. Durham admitted " it' s true we do have some responsibility for the protection of the accused ac-cused and the administration of justice. I think we need to think very hard about that as to how it affects us." IT MUST always be remembered remem-bered and upheld that a person is innnrpnt until nrnvpn oniltu beyond all reasonable doubt, ' she emphasized, adding that person accused could be you. Her audience was asked to tng ' remember "the unique oppor- o be tunity you have to learn some Bout valuable lessons about how jgea government works. I'd like ;. At you to bear in mind the moral tti content of about what you jdati do." jdei QUOTING from Theodore jrtt Roosevelt she went on, "To educate a person in mind and JSV1 not in morals is a menace to Jjy society." (, V "You will encounter many ui cases of well-educated men jpati who are menaces to society," ji.u Mrs. Durham continued, listing list-ing the "seven deadly sins" as (M outlined by Mohandas K. Gan- a u dhi, the well-known Indian political leader: Knowledge . without character; wealth without work; pleasure without with-out conscience; commercie (business) without morality; science without humanity; worship without sacrifice and rrliti(c lifhnilt nrinirlp th |
