Law Commons^™

Special Education's Lessons For School Funding Litigation, Spencer C. Weiler, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this Article, we make the case that the currently dominant approaches to challenging the constitutionality of a state’s funding efforts have proven ineffective. Instead, future lawsuits designed to bring about lasting funding reform should be informed by the successes within the field of special education by asking courts to examine individual-rights claims based on one student, or several similarly-situated individual students, petitioning the court for relief tailored to that student or class. Such an approach to school finance litigation could result in a decision that limits relief to just one application of the entire funding formula, and the remedy …

Perversity As Rationality In Teacher Evaluation, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Rational basis review is broken. Consider a vignette: Imagine a student, Lisa, who is about to graduate high school. Lisa has already completed all of the graduation course requirements early and is spending her time during her senior year taking interesting electives and dual-enrollment college courses. The state has a statute that requires school districts to deny a diploma to any student “who, during the final year of school attendance, fails to achieve a passing score on the state-approved, end-of-course exams in the courses of Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies in which that student is then-currently enrolled.”

As …

A Benign Prior Restraint Rule For Public School Classroom Speech, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article is a contribution to a symposium on schools and free speech. It advances the claim that the First Amendment doctrines that apply to the classroom should adopt a benign prior restraint rule. In the case of teacher classroom speech, the Garcetti rule should apply where the government’s action in interfering with the speech constitutes a prior restraint—the First Amendment should not reach such interference. In cases where a teacher first speaks and then is later punished for that speech, however, basic notions of due process and the dangers of arbitrary governmental decision making are far more pressing, and …

A Common Law Constitutionalism For The Right To Education, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article makes two claims, one descriptive and the other normative. The descriptive claim is that individual rights to education have not been realized under state constitutions because the currently dominant structure of education reform litigation prevents such realization. In state constitutional education clause claims, both pleadings and adjudication generally focus on the equality or adequacy of the system as a whole, rather than on any particular student's educational resources or attainment. The Article traces the roots of the currently dominant systemic approach, and finds these roots in federal institutional reform litigation. This systemic focus leads to a systemic, rather …

Individual Academic Freedom: An Ordinary Concern Of The First Amendment, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us, and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.

There is some argument that expression related to academic scholarship or classroom instruction implicates additional constitutional interests that are not fully accounted for by this Court's customary employee-speech jurisprudence. We need not, and for that reason do not, decide whether the analysis we conduct today would apply in the same …

American School Finance Litigation And The Right To Education In South Africa, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This paper addresses the South African Constitution's invitation to the Constitutional Court to 'consider foreign law' when interpreting its provisions. Focusing on the education provisions found in section 29 of the Constitution, I make two claims. Firstly, contrary to the developing consensus, American state supreme court jurisprudence in school funding cases makes a poor resource to aid the interpretation of the basic South African right to education, regardless of the quantum of education that the Constitutional Court decides is encompassed by the word 'basic'. Secondly, however, certain aspects of these same American decisions, particularly the space they provide for a …

The Education Duty, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A constitution is an instrument of entrustment. By adopting a democratic constitution, a polity places in the hands of its elected representatives its trust that those representatives will act to pursue the ends of the polity, rather than their own ends, and that they will do so with an eye toward the effects of adopted policies. In effect, the polity entrusts lawmaking power to its legislature with the expectation that such power will be exercised with loyalty to the public and with due care for its interests. Simply put, legislatures are fiduciaries.

In this Article, I examine the nature of …

State Constitutions And Individual Rights: Conceptual Convergence In School Finance Litigation, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article begins by reviewing Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld's “fundamental conceptions” and expanding his theory to the arena of state constitutional rights, building on recent work by other scholars. From this foundation, it moves to a discussion of the sources of rights to education. The Article then examines the text of relevant state constitutional provisions, as well as the ever-changing landscape of school finance litigation, the principal vehicle through which litigants assert constitutional claims based on ostensible education rights. Next, it systematically analyzes the population of reported cases from the highest state courts to identify Hohfeldian conceptions of education rights held …

State Constitutional Design And Education Reform: Process Specification In Louisiana, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

As to education, the Louisiana Constitution contains the familiar general mandate for the establishment of a public school system, now ubiquitous among state constitutions. But unlike the founding documents of any of the other states, Louisiana's constitution also provides for a very specific process-based allocation of the responsibilities for determining appropriations levels in education from year to year.

It is well-known that state constitutions often treat numerous—sometimes trivial—subjects, or contain provisions that seem hyper-specific and statutory, rather than foundational and constitutional, and state constitutions have been roundly criticized (and sometimes defended) for these features. In this Article, I argue that …

Foreword: Rights, Remedies, And Rose, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this Foreword to the University of Kentucky’s “Rose at 20” Special Feature, I seek to introduce the three featured articles, as well as to identify two major paradigm shifts in school finance litigation that grew out of the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision in Rose v. Council for Better Education. The Rose decision is commonly thought of as a bridge between prior education litigation strategies founded primarily on theories of equity or equality and subsequent litigation strategies founded primarily on theories of adequacy. Although the distinction between these two strategies is well-worn, it obscures two important changes to …

Is There An Elephant In The Room?: Judicial Review Of Educational Adequacy And The Separation Of Powers In State Constitutions, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Scholarship of education finance adequacy litigation has nearly universally acknowledged the thorny separation of powers problem that this form of litigation presents for state courts. This scholarship tacitly assumes a uniform approach to separation of powers among the states – one that defaults to the federal approach. Proposals for adjudicatory reforms purport either to respect separation of powers principles as we know them from federal case law or to reject the notion that such principles should have real operation in any state courts. However, this scholarship has not addressed, or even acknowledged, what would seem to be a very large …

When Is A "Minor" Also An "Adult"?: An Adolescent's Liberty Interest In Accessing Contraceptives From Public School Distribution Programs, Joshua A. Douglas

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Imagine “Mary,” a sixteen-year-old junior in high school, who has been dating “John,” a seventeen-year-old senior, for three years in a serious relationship. Mary knows that she and John should practice safe sex, and she does not want to become pregnant or catch a sexually transmitted disease. However, she is concerned that her parents will not approve of her activities and will not help her in obtaining contraceptives. John also feels that he is mature enough to make the decision to have sex, yet he knows that his parents will want to consent before he can receive condoms from his …

Introducing The Law Of Nonprofit Organizations And Philanthropy, David A. Brennen

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On January 5,2007, the Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law Section of AALS held its first program at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The program, entitled "State-Level Legal Reform of the Law of Nonprofit Organizations," was a fitting way to launch what should prove to be a valuable contribution to the study of law relating to nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. This burgeoning area of academic legal study is well poised to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years due to its impact on many traditional areas of legal study, including tax law, corporate law, estate law, trust law, …

Florida’S Past And Future Roles In Education Finance Reform Litigation, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In federalist parlance, the states often are called laboratories of democracy. Nowhere is this truer than in the field of education, and almost no subset of the education field lends itself to this label more than education finance. Since 1973, with very few notable exceptions, the entire development of the practice of education finance has proceeded through state-specific reforms. These reforms have occurred mostly through legislative policymaking, but the courts have played an important role in directing that policy development.

If one were to seek to observe one of these laboratories in action—to witness the interaction of the courts, the …

The Attorney-Client And Work Product Privileges: The Case For Protecting Internal Investigations On The University Campus, Virginia H. Underwood, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The authors how to make, or rather to restate, the case for the protection of reports and information generated during internal investigations at public colleges and universities. The results of an informal survey of university lawyers and Equal Protection Opportunity ("EEO") officers conducted by one of the authors prior to a presentation at the June, 2000 National Association of College and University Attorneys ("NACUA") Conference suggest that steps routinely are not taken by university counsel and investigators to assert the attorney-client and work product privileges and protect the fruits of internal investigations from disclosure. This seems odd, since the protection …

At Loggerheads: The Supreme Court And Racial Equality In Public School Education After Missouri V. Jenkins, Roberta M. Harding

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

June 12th of 1995 marked a somber occasion in the annals of school desegregation litigation. On that day, the United States Supreme Court sent disturbing messages in its opinion in Missouri v. Jenkins. The Court's decision hinders achievement of the objective of school desegregation litigation—providing equal educational opportunities for African-American public school children—and detrimentally impacts other substantive areas of civil rights litigation. This article examines what I believe are several important general consequences of Jenkins's the impairment of a trial judge's discretionary equitable remedial powers; the Court's establishment of a new agenda that sacrifices the interests of African-American …

Reflections On The Limitations Of Rational Discourse, Empirical Data, And Legal Mandates As Tools For The Achievement Of Gender Equity In American Higher Education, Susan J. Scollay, Carolyn S. Bratt

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Scholars and academicians implicitly accept and subscribe to the notion that reasoned discourse supported by empirical data is at the core of the academic enterprise. Theoretically, then, organizational change within the academy ought to be attainable through the use of rational processes based upon the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to define the scope of the problem and to identify logical solutions. However, the centuries-long attempt to achieve gender equity for women in institutions of higher education belies the truth of that belief in the power of reason as a catalyst for reforming American higher education.

Beginning with …

Kentucky Law Survey: Education: Teachers’ Rights, Keith Graham Hanley, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Tenure occupies an important place in the mind of any new teacher. During the past survey year, the Kentucky courts have demonstrated that this status is not only important to teachers generally; it is essential to continued job security. The aegis of tenure provides not only the substance of teachers’ rights but also the procedure used to protect those rights.

Discharged teachers have alleged violations of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution in both its equal protection and due process aspects and violations of the Kentucky constitution. However, in each instance the courts have summarily dismissed these claims, preferring …

Kentucky Law Survey: Education, Carolyn S. Bratt

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article provides a survey of Kentucky case law on the topic of education. During the past survey year, the Kentucky Court of Appeals decided several cases in which public education was the common denominator. Developments occurred in the areas of student discipline, merger of first class city-county school districts, and due process requirements for removal of tenured teachers. The most significant case, however, was Dorr v. Fitzer, which involved the authority of a county board of education to reject, without cause, a school superintendent's recommendation that a teacher with four consecutive limited service contracts be granted a continuing …

The University And The Liberty Of Its Students -- A Fiduciary Theory, Alvin L. Goldman

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The disciplinary power of a university is a force which every student has cause to fear. The exercise, or threat of exercise, of a school’s disciplinary power is felt in every area of campus life. Invocation of disciplinary sanctions against a student whose personal conduct or attitudes contravene standards dear to the school authorities has occurred in such ludicrous cases as the failure of a co-ed to be a “typical Syracuse girl.” In another case, a student was expelled because she refused to pay purported debts which she asserted were properly her husband’s obligations. As insidious as it may be …