Our Courts: Coming to a Game Station Near You

In a day when less than half of all Americans can name a single member of the Supreme Court, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor unveiled a new way to educate the public about the courts: a video game. Addressing the Games for Change conference yesterday, O’Connor, who was the first female justice appointed to the nation’s highest court, presented the new game called “Our Courts” – which, according to Reuters, is intended to “teach children how courts work.”

While the 78 year-old former justice admitted that she was surprised to be addressing a digital gaming conference, she has focused much of her efforts lately on educating the public about the importance of our judiciary. She says that she is particularly concerned with recent outcries against so-called “activist judges.”

In recent years I've become increasingly concerned about vitriolic attacks by some members of Congress, some members of state legislatures and various private iterest groups…on judges. We hear a great deal about judges who are activists – godless, secular, humanists trying to impose their will on the rest of us. Now I always thought an activist judge was one who got up in the morning and went to work.

Asked if she herself played videogames, Judge O’Connor apologized, admitting that she does not. She acknowledged however, that she has observed the importance technology plays in educating youth through her own grandchildren.