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On February 24, 1803 the United States Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison. The decision firmly established the principle of judicial review and
strengthened the judiciary's role as a co-equal and independent branch of government. Chief Judge John Marshall's opinion was a masterpiece. Lawyers everywhere recognize and quote his
famous statements that it is emphatically the province and duty of the courts to say what the law is and that ours is a government of laws, not of men.
On February 24, 2003, the Utah State Bar celebrated the bicentennial of Marbury v. Madison by inviting high school students from throughout the state to spend part of a day with judges and court staffs at local courthouses and by providing teachers with lesson plans and resource materials for use in the classroom. More than 150 students from 49 high schools spent time with about 65 judges from the state and federal benches. Students in Salt Lake gathered at the Matheson Courthouse for a luncheon provided by the Salt Lake County Bar and heard remarks from Chief Justice Christine Durham and Chief Judge Dee Benson. The local county bar associations elsewhere in the state generously provided lunch and a speaker at other courthouses. The students who participated were very positive about their experiences. The Bar thanks all the judges and court staffs (particularly the coordinators Diane Cowdrey and Michelle Roybal from the state and federal courts) for making this a very memorable learning experience for the students.
Along with the lesson plans and resource materials provided to all high schools, the Bar in conjunction with KUED 7 produced a 30 minute television program about Marbury v. Madison featuring Chief Judge Dee Benson, Professor Susan Olson from the University of Utah and Ted Capener, the host of Civic Dialogue.
The program aired on KUED 7 and KULC 9 on February 24th. Constitutional law Professor Richard Wilkins from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, who for the past 15 years has appeared as
Ebenezer Scrooge in the Hale Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol, gave a five-minute monologue in period costume from the viewpoint of Chief Justice John Marshall that was included at the first of the broadcast. Professor Wilkins repeated the monologue in person on February 24th at the Moss Courthouse, the Matheson Courthouse, the Fourth District Courthouse and both law schools.
I hope that you saw the full-page, educational piece in color that appeared in the five daily newspapers in the state on February 24th. The combined circulation of the newspapers
is 333,000. The educational piece gave the historical background of the Marbury v. Madison decision, explained the relevance of the decision today and explained what the "Rule of Law" means. Cal Grondahl, the cartoonist from the Ogden Standard Examiner, drew a cartoon of a family who were discussing the rule of law.
In addition, editorials and newspaper articles appeared in all five papers. Dean Scott Matheson of the S.J. Quinney School of Law and ex-officio member of the Bar Commission wrote
an excellent op/ed piece about Marbury v. Madison that appeared in most papers. Chief Justice Durham was interviewed on radio station KCPW and Duane Cardall of KSL TV presented an editorial on the subject. We are grateful to the publishers of the state's five daily newspapers who helped subsidize the printing costs. The Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association (of which our own Judge J. Thomas Greene is a member of the national council) has been the catalyst for encouraging state and local bars to commemorate and teach about Marbury
v. Madison. Charles Stewart, the Bar's pro bono coordinator, served as the point person for this project. He, along with other Bar staff under the direction of our very capable
Executive Director, John Baldwin, did an outstanding job of planning and implementing this ambitious program.
The Bar has made a major commitment of time and resources this year to
law-related education initiatives such as our Dialogue on Freedom and Marbury v. Madison projects. We feel that we are taking positive and informative messages to the public and into our schools. We look forward to building upon these efforts in the future. If you would like to learn more about Marbury
v. Madison, I encourage you to visit the Bar's web site at www.utahbar.org/marburyvmadison.
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