Ideas for constitutional issues for Deafs??

I’m a college student. In the fall, I am taking 3 “constitution” related classes in preparation for law school, which I hope to enroll in a tier 1 program. I’m attending a summer prelaw program next month and it’s a very competitive program so that will be a wonderful experience for me.

I’m taking a class on American race policies which will deal with the constitution, but I will be expected to read a book not about African Americans, so I’d like to talk about Deaf struggle to the class. From what I understand, we will give an oral book report in class. I’m taking a constitutional interpretation class but I doubt I will do research in that class as it is not a writing course. We are expected to know the material we read extremely well as the socratic method will be employed by the professor. The 3rd related class will be constitutional issues (history class) and I will be expected to write a 40-55 page paper. Obviously I want this to be about Deafs and get it published somewhere. In order to move up in academics, you should publish several things. What’s ironic is that people don’t care if the work is shoddy, as long as it is published so I want to make sure this is a well written piece that will be of use to lawyers and for Deaf advocates.

I’m curious which cases or issues would you most want to read about? I have 3 1/2 months until the fall semester starts but I am excited about this opportunity because my professor won the Pulitzer prize, so the class should benefit greatly. You know, there are many major cases in our past such as Brown vs Board of education which ended segregation, but what case is similar for Deaf people, does anyone know? I do have access to several lawyers who are Deaf or work with Deaf people but wanted to get a non-lawyer’s perspective. (Ok fine, if you are a lawyer and happen to read this, feel free to throw in your 2 cents worth) Perhaps we all still have constitutional issues to face and it has not been resolved? That is possible and would certainly need to make sure I have 40-55 pages of material to write!

Some of the ideas I had was to incorporate concepts from my philosophy of law class in terms of discrimination such as justified/unjustified discrimination. (Not all discrimination is automatically bad) Affirmative action is another tricky concept but is justified when past wrongs have been committed against Deaf people, in order to correct the wrong. That’s a whole another topic to blog about hmm…

Feel free to throw out ideas and who knows, one of these days you will read about it! I’ll have to make sure credit is given where it is due too!!! Just wish me luck well in advance I can pursue constitutional issues for Deaf people. Maybe I’ll ask my professor now if I can pursue this topic and I’ve already been in touch with him, he will give me a reading list for the class by mid summer so i can get a head start. Students do often contact their professors to see what they can read well before classes start.

FYI, there are over 125-175 Deaf/HoH people who are lawyers, in law school or teaching law. Before I sign off, if anyone wants to go to law school, there is no perfect degree in getting into law school. People with all kinds of degrees get into law school but it is my biased opinion that people should take as many philosophy classes as they can prior to entering law school. Critical thinking, logic, and ethics are a few of the must-take classes. These classes will help develop your reasoning skills needed to take the LSAT and improve reading comprehension skills. (Philosophy majors tend to score the highest on the LSAT, so it is not a surprise why)