The Anne Arundel Bar Association and its charitable Foundation invite all high school students in Anne Arundel County to enter the Foundation’s annual legal essay contest. During the past 19 years, nearly 3,000 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.
The topic for this year’s essay contest is a current Supreme Court case (The American Legion v. American Humanist Association, Docket No. 17-1717) that will decide whether a government-funded display and maintenance of a 40-foot-tall cross-shaped World War I memorial placed at a public highway intersection in Bladensburg, MD, violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because of its relation to Christianity. Students and teachers can find more information about the essay contest and background information on the case to be considered atwww.aabar.org/essay2019.
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 type. 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 April 26, 2019, 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 [email protected] for more information.
