8th Graders Debate Due Process

As Trump administration lawyers and critics debate whether undocumented migrants are entitled to due process in deportation proceedings, eighth grader Maseo Regan argued that the use of ​“person” instead of ​“citizen” in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment means that anyone on American soil — citizen or non-citizen — deserves that basic legal fairness. 

Maseo delivered that argument with three of his classmates from Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) during a mock Congressional hearing at the New Haven Museum. 

It was the culmination of Kirsten Hopes-Mcfadden’s U.S. history class, which used the Center for Civic Education’s curriculum, ​“We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution.” 

A total of 82 eighth graders, divided into 20 teams, delivered four-minute statements Tuesday morning to an audience of their peers and parents, as well as a panel of high school students from Wilbur Cross High School and Trumbull High School. The high schoolers, who previously participated in a We the People state-level competition, acted as ​“members of Congress.” 

Once Maceo, Esteban Mansourian, Jaxson Langley, and Prince Warren completed their speeches, the panel peppered them with questions like, ​“Should due process be suspended in times of crisis?” and ​“What does discrimination mean to you?” They took turns responding, stepping in with an argument or precedent when a teammate seemed nervous. 

Due process, guaranteed by the 5th and 14th Amendments, requires the government to follow fair procedures — such as an unbiased trial — before depriving a person of their ​“life, liberty, or property.” It also prohibits the government from infringing on certain rights, such as the right to privacy, without a very strong justification. 

As the Trump administration has sought to deport non-citizens, including international students, without due process, debates about who is entitled to the 5th and 14th Amendments have become a hot-button topic for the federal government and its critics. 

The eighth graders on Tuesday were ready to engage with some of the Trump administration’s main arguments, including that the wartime authority guaranteed by the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows migrants to be deported without due process. (Meanwhile, click here to read about the Trump administration’s recent termination of teaching grants that helped make Tuesday’s mock hearing possible.)

Jaxson and Esteban argued that in order to prevent executive overreach and tyranny, certain rights, including the right to sufficient notice of trial, should almost never be suspended. 

In a room upstairs, Eva Luce, Mehreen Alam, and Anson Labuthie focused on how due process rights should apply to minors. Reading off notecards, they cited landmark court cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, Lawrence v. Texas, and Furman v. Georgia, to argue that young children deserve additional protections under the 5th and 14th Amendments. 

Esteban related the controversy over due process to his personal experience. Students at his school are subjected to security checks every morning, he said. While young people are entitled to privacy, he argued that ​“when someone enters a school environment, they’re forfeiting some due process, so they can be searched.” 

Erin Simcik, We the People’s state co-coordinator, has been involved with the program for over a decade. ​“The level of engagement for students far surpassed any other tool I had at my disposal,” she explained, which is why she has kept using the program in her classroom at South Windsor High School. 

Simcik is also optimistic about the impact of We the People on students, especially with regard to artificial intelligence (AI) use. 

She explained, ​“For regular assignments, kids are throwing things into ChatGPT. But having to learn and explain something to someone else,” which is what students do in We the People competitions, ​“requires more than a superficial understanding.” 

High school students Audrey Zelezniak Berezowski, Yoselin Perez, and Kelly Meza and Yale PhD student Isabelle Aboaf completed the high school version of the curriculum, which they all praised as ​“challenging,” ​“in-depth,” and ​“sometimes stressful.” 

“I like how we connected the curriculum to what’s happening now, like with balancing the right to privacy and security,” explained Perez. Aboaf agreed: ​“The best thing about the program is showing students that the dilemmas that they’re experiencing every day have roots in Constitutional issues.”

Once Eva, Mehreen, and Anson completed their statement and answered the panel’s questions, Aboaf smiled encouragingly. ​“You all demonstrated a solid understanding of why due process is so important,” she said, ​“and that is really reassuring to hear!”