County Bar Foundation seeks entries for high school legal essay contest

The Anne Arundel County Bar Foundation invites all high school students in Anne Arundel County to enter the Foundation’s annual legal essay contest. During the past 17 years, nearly 2,800 county students have participated in this competition.

The contest is open to all public or private high school students in grades 9-12, and home-schooled students at corresponding grade levels. The Foundation will award three cash prizes of $500 (1st place), $250 (2nd place) and $100 (3rd place) to the students who submit the winning essays. Students and teachers can find more information about the essay contest and background information on the case to be considered at www.aabar.org/essay2017

The topic for this year’s essay contest is a current Supreme Court case (Packingham v. North Carolina, Docket No. 15-1194) that will decide whether a State may make it a crime for a registered sex offender to access any social networking site or website that might be frequented by minors. The plaintiff in the case argues that the North Carolina law in question is a violation of the First Amendment. The State argues that the law is narrowly tailored and doesn’t actually regulate speech by registered sex offenders.

To enter, a student should submit an essay of up to 1,200 words expressing his or her opinion on how the Supreme Court should rule in this case. Entries should be double-spaced and either typewritten or printed using a computer word processor. All portions of the essay that are not expressly identified as quotations must be the original work product of the student submitting the essay.

The essay must be accompanied by a cover sheet that includes the following information: the student’s name, address, phone number and e-mail address; school’s name (if applicable), address and phone number; and the name of the teacher sponsor (if applicable, or parent if home-schooled). Essays must be postmarked no later than May 12, 2017, and mailed to: Anne Arundel County Bar Foundation, Essay Contest, PO Box 161, Annapolis, MD 21404.

Students or parents with questions about the essay contest should contact the Foundation at info@aabar.org for more information.

Established in 1990, the Anne Arundel County Bar Foundation is a charitable organization founded by the members of the Anne Arundel Bar Association (AABA) to foster and maintain the honor and integrity of the profession of law. The AABA is a nonprofit membership organization of more than 1,200 legal professionals. We provide legal services to the community and career development opportunities for legal professionals. Learn more about the AABA at www.aabar.org.