Education Law Commons^™

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

As this Essay goes to press, the Supreme Court is considering whether Ohio's school-choice program violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In my view, the Ohio program is sound public policy, and it is consistent with the Justices' present understanding of the Establishment Clause. I also believe that the Court will and should permit this experiment, and our conversations about its merits, to continue. The purpose of this Essay, though, is not to predict or evaluate ex ante the Court's decision. Instead, my primary aim is to suggest and then sketch a few broad themes that--once the …

Common Schools And The Common Good: Reflections On The School-Choice Debate, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Thank you very much for this timely and important discussion on school choice, religious faith, and the public good.

First things first—Steven Green is right: The Cleveland school-voucher case is headed for the Supreme Court. And I am afraid that Mr. Green is also correct when he observes that the question whether the First Amendment permits States to experiment with meaningful choice-based education reform will likely turn on Justice O'Connor's fine-tuned aesthetic reactions to the minutiae of Ohio's school-choice experiment.

Putting aside for now the particulars of the Cleveland case, though, I would like to propose for your consideration a …

Religion And Education: Whither The Establishment Clause?, Martha Mccarthy

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Religious Liberty at the Dawn of a New Millennium held at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on April 9, 1999.

The Constitutionality Of Mandatory Public School Community Service Programs, Rodney A. Smolla

Law Faculty Publications

Proposals for public service programs have long had currency in America, and may be gaining a certain millennium momentum in current public debate. While proposals for national public service programs of varying ambition and scope continue to be debated, at the local level a growing number of U.S. public school districts are implementing community service programs for high school students. Community service programs generally require students to complete a specified number of hours of service as a condition for graduation. In a typical program, a student may be required to complete forty to sixty hours of community service with organizations …

Separation And Schools, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

In commenting on these rich papers by Michel Troper and Michael McConnell, I first analyze the implications of legal and political theory for religious liberty and separation of church and state. I then turn to underlying premises of modern liberal theory about moral education and tolerance among citizens. Lastly, I concentrate on separation as it affects the schooling of children. Despite Professor Troper's emphasis on the uniqueness of French understanding and history, I was struck by how closely French problems about schooling, and their possible resolutions, resemble those in the United States.

Internet Speech And The First Amendment Rights Of Public School Students, Leora Harpaz

Faculty Scholarship

In exploring the range of the First Amendment issues raised by school efforts to discipline students for Internet activities, this Article first examines Supreme Court and lower court precedent involving student speech outside of the Internet context. It then looks at Beussink, the first reported decision to involve discipline of a student for Internet speech. It also discusses other Internet situations in which schools have sought to impose sanctions on students. In its final section, it applies free speech methodology to a range of Internet situations. This exploration identifies some situations where a school is free to control speech that …

Power, The Establishment Clause, And Vouchers, Marci A. Hamilton

Articles

No abstract provided.

Choppy Waters Are Forecast For Academic Free Speech, Rachel E. Fugate

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

City Of Boerne V. Flores: A Landmark For Structural Analysis, Marci A. Hamilton

Articles

No abstract provided.

Common Schools, Uncommon Values: Listening To The Voices Of Dissent, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Education in America as we know it today draws its origins from the philosophical perspectives and political objectives of the common school reformers over a century ago. For them, mass education was a primary vehicle for defining ourselves as a nation. Schools would develop civic virtue and a national character through a shared set of values reflected in the school curriculum. The common school experience, offered to all regardless of social class or ethnic background, would assimilate the hordes of immigrants coming to our shores and meet the emerging needs of industrialization. Individuals across the economic spectrum, afforded education …

New Restrictions On Academic Free Speech: Jeffries V. Harleston Ii, Richard H. Hiers

UF Law Faculty Publications

Notwithstanding academic freedom's venerable and near-sacrosanct place among academicians in the United States today, the Supreme Court first accorded it constitutional status only in the 1950s. The Court did not recognize First Amendment speech rights of public employees generally until 1968. In subsequent years, the Court evolved two separate lines of cases: the one relating to, and generally protective of, academic freedom in public colleges and universities; the other, relating to the speech rights of public school teachers and public employees in other work contexts. The Supreme Court has yet to address the question whether the severely restrictive standards developed …

Public Forum Doctrine And The Perils Of Categorical Thinking: Lessons From Lamb's Chapel, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, the intersection of the Religion and Speech Clauses of the First Amendment has become increasingly controversial particularly in the context of public schooling. Religious group meetings, the distribution of religious literature, the discussion of religious themes, and the recitation of prayers at graduation ceremonies have all forced the courts to weigh and re-weigh the right to individual speech against the responsibility of the state to stay within the bounds of Establishment Clause doctrine. Several legal and political factors have fueled this debate. Although the Supreme Court has reaffirmed on several occasions the unconstitutionality of organized prayer …

Free Speech And School Governance In The Wake Of Hazelwood, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The Supreme Court's 1988 decision in Hazelwood School District v. KuhImeier upholding public school officials' authority to censor material in a high school student newspaper sent immediate shock waves throughout the educational and legal communities. The Court's sweeping language in Hazelwood moved far beyond the narrow issue of school newspaper censorship. It even moved beyond the question of appropriate or acceptable speech in public secondary schools. It was clear that Hazelwood could have far-reaching consequences for student rights, school governance, and the scope of official authority to make curricular decisions that reflect the values of the local community.

Some …

From Widmar To Mergens: The Winding Road Of First Amendment Analysis, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 1981, the Supreme Court decided Widmar v. Vincent, holding that a state university that created a "limited open forum" by opening its facilities to student organizations must grant equal access to religiously affiliated groups. The university's failure to do so constituted content-based discrimination that violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court rejected the university's argument that its policy to disallow religious meetings on campus was implemented to avoid contravening establishment clause principles. The Court's opinion was inconclusive as to whether the Widmar rationale would apply to secondary schools.

During the same period, Congress …

Shacking Up With The First Amendment: Symbolic Expression And The Public University, Laura L. Goodman

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Aliens In The Marketplace Of Ideas: The Government, The Academy, And The Mccarran-Walter Act, John A. Scanlan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Student Speech—Free Press In High Schools, Michael A. Simons

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Public educators in the United States are expected to pass on to their students—to inculcate in them—the shared values of their community. This communication of values is essential to the continued vitality of American culture and to the social, moral, and political education of students. Yet inculcation of community values cannot be allowed to trample students' individual liberties; public educators must strike a delicate balance between the state's educational interests and the students' rights to self-expression. Although the striking of this balance should initially be left to local educators, when value inculcation impermissibly interferes with students' constitutional rights, courts …

First Amendment Restrictions On Title I Programs In Private Schools, Laura Gaston Dooley

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mueller V. Allen, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Nathaniel Goldstein Memorial Lecture, Murray I. Gurfein

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Committee For Public Education And Religious Liberty V. Regan, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Bakke Revisited - What The Court's Decision Means - And Doesn't Mean, Douglas D. Scherer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Wolman V. Walters, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Mt. Healthy City School District Board Of Education V. Doyle, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Meek V. Pittinger, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Papish V. Board Of Curators Of The University Of Missouri, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Healy V. James, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

The Elementary And Secondary Education Act Of 1965 And The First Amendment

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of "Religion" In The School Prayer Cases, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

It is not my purpose here to discuss the possible extensions of the school prayer decisions. Rather, I am concerned only with the thought that the unqualified incorporation of the broad definition of religion into the establishment clause is perhaps the root fallacy in the Court's reasoning. In order to avoid an institutionalization of agnosticism as the official public religion of this country, the Court ought to acknowledge that nontheistic religions are not entitled to such unqualified recognition under the establishment clause as to bar even a simple governmental affirmation that in fact the Declaration of Independence is true when …