The Supreme Court has agreed to decide if the invocation for the town meetings in Greece, NY improperly favored Christianity and are unconstitutional.
Continue reading...The Providence Journal reports that the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ordered the dismissal of a suit brought by American Civil Liberties Union challenging the constitutional validity of truancy courts.
Continue reading...MainLineMediaNews.com reports that the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal in the Lower Merion School District redistricting case.
Continue reading...In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that private individuals temporarily retained to carry out government work are entitled to qualified immunity from suit under § 1983.
Continue reading...Nine African American students are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to review a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in their bias case against the Lower Merion School District (LMSD), reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. In December 2011, the federal appellate court found that LMSD’s 2009 plan to assign the students to Harriton High School against their will did not violate their constitutional rights.
Continue reading...The U.S. Supreme Court has granted review in a case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, Docket No. 11-345, that asks whether the University of Texas’ race-conscious admission policies violate the rights of white applicants, reports CNN.
Continue reading...Mark Walsh reports in Education Week’s School Law Blog that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied review to a petition for certiorari in Payne v. Peninsula School District, Docket No. 11-539, a case implicating the exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Peninsula School District (PSD) was seeking review of a federal appeals court decision ruling that because the mother’s suit raised constitutional claims in addition to claims under the federal special education law, the suit did not have to exhaust administrative remedies under the IDEA.
Continue reading...Several national media outlets reported on the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in three student internet speech cases, J.S. v. Blue Mountain Sch. Dist. (combined with Layshock v. Hermitage Sch. Dist.) and Kowalksi v. Berkeley Count Sch. In each of these cases, a student had used offensive language online, after school hours, to berate school administrators or a fellow student.
Continue reading...Mark Walsh reports in Education Week’s School Law Blog that the Supreme Court has found in favor of a Lutheran church in a retaliation suit brought by one of its teachers. In the unanimous ruling authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court determined that both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment “bar the government from interfering with the decision of a religious group to fire one if its ministers.”
Continue reading...The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that asks a seemingly simple question: Is a lawyer retained to work with government employees in conducting an internal affairs investigation precluded from asserting qualified immunity simply because he is a “private” lawyer rather than an employee of the public entity? NSBA, joining forces with other national and international groups representing public entities, urges the Court to say no, and to allow private attorneys to assert immunity when they are sued for constitutional violations.
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