UAA students demonstrate knowledge of U.S. Constitution in James Madison Cup

"Oh, this is a hard one..." It's a statement most people would be nervous to hear from a judge during a competition, but students competing in the recent James Madison Cup at UAA took the comment as a challenge.

The James Madison Cup is an annual competition held by the Department of Political Science, in which students are quizzed about random U.S. Constitution knowledge. Questions vary in difficulty and points are doubled if the answering team can name the article and section the answer would be found in. The competition is open to any UAA student, regardless of major. Teams are made up of either one or two students.

Judges and political science professors James Muller and Forrest Nabors deliberated many times with guest judge James Nichols, who was invited from Claremont McKenna College for Saturday evening's lecture, What the Framers of the U.S. Constitution Learned from Rome.

Of six participating teams, two advanced to the final round: "Oh, It's Today" and "The Communists." Sam Erickson (two-time champion of the Madison Cup) and his partner, Jacob Shercliffe, made up "Oh, It's Today"; partners William Jodwalis and Austin Otos were "The Communists." Three of the four finalists were finalists in last year's competition. Erickson and Shercliffe won their final six points and the competition with the question: What is treason against the United States? Answer: "...Levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort (Article 3, Section 3)."

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