A Constitutional Crisis in Plain Sight
Fellow Citizens,
The New Hampshire Constitution begins with the clearest possible declaration of why government exists: to secure the life, liberty, property, and character of every individual. In Part I, Article 35, our founders placed upon the judiciary the solemn duty to deliver an “impartial interpretation of the laws” because, they said, this is “essential to the preservation of the rights of every individual.”
They knew that an ignorant judge is as dangerous as a corrupt one. An impartial interpretation of the laws is impossible without first knowing what the laws—and the Constitution that stands above them—actually say. For that reason, our Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that gross or persistent ignorance of the law by a judge violates the constitutional standard of Article 35 and can justify discipline or removal (see In re Snow, 140 N.H. 618 (1996); Petition of Judicial Conduct Committee, 151 N.H. 589 (2005)).
Yet today we face a quiet constitutional crisis that strikes at the very heart of Article 35 and the entire Bill of Rights:
No one in New Hampshire is systematically taught the New Hampshire Constitution—not in our public schools, not at our state university’s, not even at the state’s only law school, and not in the continuing legal education required of our judges and lawyers.
- The New Hampshire Bar Association offers virtually no mandatory training on our own state Constitution.
- The University of New Hampshire and its law school treat the state Constitution as an afterthought, if they mention it at all.
- Our public-school curriculum standards contain no requirement that students ever read, much less master, the document that is the supreme law of this state.
- Judges take the bench, legislators take office, and citizens take the oath of allegiance having never been expected—much less required—to study the charter that defines their rights and duties.
The result is predictable and perilous: civic illiteracy at every level of government.
We now have judges who rule on the meaning of our Constitution without ever having been taught it. We have legislators who amend statutes and propose constitutional amendments while unfamiliar with the text they are sworn to support. And we have a citizenry unable to recognize when their rights are being violated because they have never been shown where those rights are written.
This is not a mere educational oversight. It is a direct threat to the “security of the rights of the people” that Article 35 declares to be the whole justification for an independent judiciary.
[Art.] 35. [The Judiciary; Tenure of Office, etc.]
It is essential to the preservation of the rights of every individual, his life, liberty, property, and character, that there be an impartial interpretation of the laws, and administration of justice. It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as impartial as the lot of humanity will admit. It is therefore not only the best policy, but for the security of the rights of the people, that the Judges of the Supreme Judicial Court should hold their offices so long as they behave well; subject, however, to such limitations, on account of age, as may be provided by the Constitution of the State; and that they should have honorable salaries, ascertained and established by standing laws. June 2, 1784
When the guardians of the Constitution are themselves ignorant of its contents, the people are left defenseless.
We therefore demand immediate action:
- Make the study of the New Hampshire Constitution mandatory in every public high school civics curriculum.
- Require every candidate for judicial office and every sitting judge to complete certified coursework on the New Hampshire Constitution and its case law.
- Direct the New Hampshire Bar Association to make annual continuing legal education on the state Constitution mandatory for all members.
- Establish at the University of New Hampshire School of Law a dedicated Center for New Hampshire Constitutional Studies, open to students, lawyers, judges, and the public.
Our founders did not fight a revolution and craft one of the oldest written constitutions in the world so that two centuries later their descendants would treat it as an obscure historical footnote.
The rights of the people of New Hampshire are not self-executing. They depend on a judiciary “as impartial as the lot of humanity will admit”—and impartiality begins with knowledge.
It is time to end the civic amnesia that endangers our liberty.
Let the people speak. Let the teaching begin. Let New Hampshire once again become what it was meant to be: a state whose citizens, legislators, and judges actually know, understand, and defend their own Constitution.
For the security of the rights of the people.
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