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Colorado Law’s 2026 Constitution Day project drew dozens of volunteer law students, alumni, and attorneys from the community to explore challenging questions about Constitutional topics on Sept. 17-25, reaching an estimated 1,900 students at 17 high schools across the Front Range.��

Additionally, Fort Lewis College in Durango participated in the Constitution Day project for the first time.

Law student Meryl Compton leads a Constitution Day class at Fairview High School in Boulder. The lessons encouraged high schoolers to evaluate and share their own views on the Fourth Amendment.

This annual project, first launched in September 2011, allows trained volunteers visit classrooms across Colorado, offering interactive lesson plans that raise tough questions. The intent is to help students build Constitutional literacy and to spark interest in the field of law.��

This year's Constitution Day lesson focused on the Fourth Amendment and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures—a right that touches students' daily lives, from backpacks and lockers to the phones nearly every student carries. In a world where so much of a student's life lives on a screen, the program helped students to explore what the right protects, where its limits lie, and why it matters.

Volunteer Andrew Nosler ’27 said the program benefitted both high school and law students alike.

“The Fourth Amendment curriculum was highly engaging, and it inspired so many student questions about the law more broadly,” Nosler said. “I loved watching high schoolers connect their own stories to the living, breathing world of civil rights law. What a great opportunity to talk and think about the law outside of law school. I never would have guessed how creative and thoughtful the high school students would be.”

Chris O’Grady, a teacher at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, said the lesson vastly improved his students’ grasp of the issues.

“The lesson was perfect for their level of understanding and set them up remarkably well to be prepared for these types of issues moving forward. I was very impressed,” he said.

Students discussed real legal cases dealing with searches and seizures.

Professor Christina Stanton, who has directed the program since 2023, said it held special significance this year following the death of Justice Melissa Hart, who developed and led Constitutional literacy initiatives during her time on the Colorado Law faculty.��

"I volunteered for Constitution Day all three years of law school, and I took Melissa Hart's Marshall Brennan constitutional literacy course, which put me in a high school classroom and took me to Washington, D.C., with students from across the Front Range for the national competition,” said Stanton.��

“Justice Hart led with a public service mind. She understood that the law touches everyone and that educating young people and working beyond the walls of the law school matter. The program she started is still making an impact today. That's how I try to practice law and teach, and leading Constitution Day now is my way of carrying her example forward."
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