On Sunday November 4, East HS teacher Brian Borowski and two East students — Grace Ramsey and Kevin Murphy - left Madison for a once in a lifetime trip to Washington, D.C.

On November 5 and 6, they joined 87 students and 40 teachers from 34 states, plus Puerto Rico, gathered in Washington to meet with justices of the U. S. Supreme Court, a project of the Annenberg Foundation Trust - Sunnylands.

Over the course of two days, the students had the opportunity to question and engage in conversations with Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Antonin Scalia and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The conversations were videotaped and will be made available next year for use in classrooms across America.

The latest videos will join four others that are part of Sunnylands Seminars on the judicial branch. The goal of the Sunnylands project is to help students better understand the U.S. Constitution and the role an independent judiciary plays in this nation's democracy.

The following is Brian Borowski's description of the trip.

On Monday we went to the Thurgood Marshall Judicial Building for our first taping. Our question was about Yick Wo vs.Hopkins. It involved the reasons for the suspension of Habeas Corpus. (Did the Supreme Court recognize the fact that Yick Wo was denied a writ of habeas corpus by the California Supreme Court and should that fact have affected his chances of winning his case in the Supreme Court?)

Grace Ramsey was assigned the question but instead of asking the question she ended up answering a question about the 14th Amendment about Equal Protection. (Justice Kennedy was leading this taping).

East was very well represented at the taping.

On Tuesday, we were in the taping with Justices Scalia and Breyer. They had a great discussion regarding the process of looking at the Constitution when making decisions. It was an amazing discussion with a great deal of disagreement.

Justice Scalia felt that the Supreme Court should not be in the business of changing/creating laws. He felt that was the Legislative branch job to change law. Justice Scalia felt that an originalist's view of the constitution was the correct view.

Justice Breyer felt a more modern approach was the correct way to look at the Constitution. If we did not take into account the changes in society when looking at cases, we would never change with the times.

It was an amazing discussion. The East students attempted to answer questions but did not get a chance.

Overall it was an amazing and powerful experience. It was also very enjoyable.

East High School students Kevin Murphy and Grace Ramsey and East teacher Brian Borowski on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court Building.