The Courts and Community Committee has gotten off to a fast start in the new year. The 2019 Ninth Circuit Civics Contest began on January 2 with the launch of the official contest website at https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/civicscontest. The theme for this year’s essay and video competition for high school students is “The 4th Amendment in the 21st Century: What Is an ‘Unreasonable Search and Seizure’ in the Digital Age?” The contest is in its sixth year and 2019 will be the fourth circuit-wide competition. All Ninth Circuit courts are again participating. I cannot thank enough all the chief judges and clerks of court for their ongoing support.
The Courts and Community Committee also is hard at work organizing the Ninth Circuit’s first full-fledged Civics Education Coordinator Conference, which will bring together judges and court staff from around the circuit who are involved in civics education and community outreach. Entitled “Civics Education: Successful Programs and Best Practices in the Ninth Circuit,” the conference will be held February 27-March 1, 2019, at The Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Library and Learning Center in Sacramento, California.
The conference will allow judges and court staff to meet and share information about the many wonderful civics education and community outreach programs now sponsored by federal courts here in the circuit and elsewhere. The Courts and Community Committee, the Kennedy Learning Center and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California are sponsoring the conference.