Education Law Commons^™

Keynote Address: Community Over Constitution, Riddhi Mukhopadhyay

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, Riddhi Mukhopadhyay challenges the veneration of the U.S. Constitution by highlighting its origins in exclusion and its continued failure to protect marginalized communities. Drawing from her experience in civil legal aid and gender justice, she argues that the Constitution was drafted to consolidate power among white, wealthy men and continues to reflect that legacy through racial, gender, and class-based inequities. While acknowledging the significance of constitutional amendments and landmark cases, Mukhopadhyay emphasizes that meaningful change has always come from community-led action, not top-down reform. Additionally, Mukhopadhyay calls on lawyers and legal advocates to center community, practice …

Whose Right(S)?: Civil Rights Impact Of Cultural Conflicts In The Curriculum, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

Statutes seeking to prohibit the teaching of certain curricular topics that are considered divisive infringe upon the civil rights of students, parents, and teachers. The conflict over what should be taught implicates the rights of students, specifically their right to receive and to learn information; the rights of parents, specifically the right to control the education of their children; and the rights of teachers, specifically the First Amendment and academic freedom. “Anti-Woke” legislation, as it is broadly termed, is designed to silence those who seek to engage in the critical analysis of the structural and systemic barriers that have prevented …

From 1957 To 2023: How The Supreme Court Prevented Little Rock Schools From Achieving The Ideal Of Desegregation, Nyssa Kruse

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Admissions Essays After Sffa, Sonja Starr

Indiana Law Journal

The Supreme Court concluded its 2023 decision barring affirmative action in university admissions with a qualification: Although they may not give weight to “race qua race,” universities may consider individual applicants’ discussion of race-related life experience that bears on their strengths and potential. This “essay carveout” provides a potential path forward for universities (and other entities to which the affirmative action ban may eventually apply). But the Court also warned against using it to enact “indirect” affirmative action, and legal advocates of colorblindness stand poised to challenge any use of essays that appears to stray over this line. So where …

The Right To Inequality: Conservative Politics And Precedent Collide, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

The “end of affirmative action” is the beginning of this story. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Supreme Court struck a near fatal blow to race-consciousness. Many institutions have since pivoted to “race neutral alternatives.” This is a natural turn. But one that faces immediate headwinds.

The same entities that demanded Harvard pursue racial diversity through colorblind means have sued public high schools for doing just that. These litigants assert a “right to inequality”—a theory that would pit the equal protection clause against equality itself. Even if normatively jarring, a right to inequality might seem a …

Reparations And Higher Education: How Public Universities May Offer Reparation Scholarships To Black Students In The Post-Affirmative Action Era After Students For Fair Admissions V. Harvard, William Y. Chin

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Overturning Sffa V. Harvard, David Hinojosa, Chavis Jones

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

One of the first lessons law students learn is the importance of stare decisis. It not only serves as a tool to learn how to apply settled law to argument and persuasive writing, but foundationally stare decisis helps promote the public’s trust, confidence, and faith in the judicial system. Thus, when the Supreme Court issued its 6-3 opinion in 2023 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard/University of North Carolina (“Harvard”), most onlookers viewed the decision as being the final nail in the coffin for affirmative action in higher education admissions. However, we—the authors—are among the minority.

In …

Critical Race Theory Bans And The Changing Canon: Cultural Appropriation In Narrative, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

Thirty-five states have enacted critical race theory bans at the level of elementary and secondary public education, and seven states have extended these to the university level. One way to resist these attempts to repress a healthy democracy by whitewashing history is through a pedagogy of antiracism, including literary works. The question of what that would look like involves questions of cultural appropriation, which occurs when one takes from another culture, such as a writer creating a narrative about a character outside of the writer’s cultural identity. This Article considers the story of Ota Benga, brought from the Congo to …

Tolled Education: An Economic Markets And Goods Analysis Of Inefficiencies In American Public Education, Ethan Dilks

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

The goal of this Comment is to evaluate the failures of the current system of education within the United States via policy and economic market and goods analysis lenses; in doing so, it will establish that public education in the United States is a toll good, and the only way to properly fix the inefficiencies that result is to reduce excludability and convert the education into a public good. First, Part I will overview how we got here by describing relevant laws and history, the current state of federal case law, and the dire situation for many students throughout the …

Going Forward: The Role Of Affirmative Action, Race, And Diversity In University Admissions And The Broader Construction Of Society, Steven W. Bender

Seattle University Law Review

The third annual EPOCH symposium, a partnership between the Seattle University Law Review and the Black Law Student Association took place in late summer 2023 at the Seattle University School of Law. It was intended to uplift and amplify Black voices and ideas, and those of allies in the legal community. Prompted by the swell of public outcry surrounding ongoing police violence against the Black community, the EPOCH partnership marked a commitment to antiracism imperatives and effectuating change for the Black community. The published symposium in this volume encompasses some, but not all, the ideas and vision detailed in the …

The War On Higher Education, Athena Mutua, Jonathan Feingold, Angela Harris, Emily Houh, Matthew Patrick Shaw, Frank Valdes

Faculty Scholarship

Academic freedom is under assault in the United States.¹ Like the authoritarian populism rising across the globe, domestic attacks on individual professors and academic institutions buttress a broader and multifaceted campaign to undermine multiracial democracy and the institutions that sustain and safeguard it.² The individuals and entities driving this antidemocratic movement have also targeted the electoral process; public education; the right to bodily autonomy; the civil rights and liberties of minoritized and marginalized communities; and freedom of speech and expression (increasingly marshaled against pro-Palestinian advocacy).³ Their openly stated goal is to delegitimize, defund, and “lay siege to” …

Education, The First Amendment, And The Constitution, Erwin Chemerinsky

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Dean Bowman On The Scotus Admissions Decision 6-29-2023, Gregory W. Bowman

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Ochoa, Big Ten Law Deans Pledge Support For Diversity Ahead Of Scotus Affirmative Action Ruling, The Indiana Lawyer

Christiana Ochoa (7/22-10/22 Acting; 11/2022-)

s the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hand down a decision that could fundamentally alter affirmative action, a group of law school deans — including Dean Christiana Ochoa of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law — has issued a statement affirming the deans’ commitment to diversity.

The group of 15 deans represent Big Ten law schools, including IU Maurer. In their statement — which IU Maurer posted to its official Facebook page — the deans say they are “joining together to affirm our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through legally permissible means, regardless of the outcome of …

Ambivalent Advocates: Why Elite Universities Compromised The Case For Affirmative Action, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

“The end of affirmative action.” The headline is near. When it arrives, scholars will explain that a controversial set of policies could not withstand unfriendly doctrine and less friendly Justices. This story is not wrong. But it is incomplete. Critically, this account masks an underappreciated source of affirmative action’s enduring instability: elite universities, affirmative action’s formal champions, have always been ambivalent advocates.
/="/">
/="/">Elite universities are uniquely positioned to shape legal and lay opinions about affirmative action. They are formal defendants in affirmative action litigation and objects of public obsession. And yet, schools like Harvard and the University of …

Affirmative Action After Sffa, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

In SFFA v. Harvard (SFFA), the Supreme Court further restricted a university’s right to consider the racial identity of individual applicants during admissions. The ruling has spawned considerable confusion regarding a university’s ongoing ability to pursue racial diversity, racial inclusion, and other equality-oriented goals—whether through “raceconscious” or “race-neutral” means. To assist institutions attempting to navigate the ruling, this article outlines a set of key legal rights and responsibilities that universities continue to possess following SFFA.

Family | Home | School, Latoya Baldwin Clark

Northwestern University Law Review

The state grants residents who live within a school district’s border an ownership interest in that district’s schools. This interest includes the power to exclude nonresidents. To attend school in a school district, a child must prove that she lives at an in-district address and is a bona fide resident. But in highly-sought-after districts and schools, establishing a child’s bona fide residence may be highly contested.

In this Essay, I show that education law, policies, and practices fail to recognize a child’s residence when the child’s family and living situation do not comport with a particular ideal of family life. …

The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle: The Intersection Of Race And Special Education, Tsega Zewdneh Shiferaw

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The privileges allotted to Americans cannot be compared to any other country’s citizens. Americans have the liberty of saying what they want, thinking what they want, and acting freely in public. Nebiyat Shiferaw (“Nebiyat”) is a thirty-year-old African American man who is unable to speak and live independently because he has autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (“ASD”). Nebiyat does not experience the same liberties as most Americans; he has gone through special education programs and has overcome discrimination, not because of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), but because of his parents advocating for him. As a …

Micro-Mediation: A New First Step On The Mixed-Mode Alternative Dispute Resolution Ladder In Higher Education, Joseph C. Alfe

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Higher education is fraught with disputes on both a macro and micro level. In a broad sense, institutions of higher education serve as a focal point for many disparate cultures, economic strata, ages, genders, races, ideologies, and other societal influences, and concentrates them within an insular community. Such an amalgamation of humanity is bound to produce conflicts of all kinds. These disputes can range from the elementary to the criminal. Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 governs disputes rising to the level of sexual harassment or discrimination and are updated by periodic agency updates disseminated through “dear colleague” …

Affirmative Action Tested: The Constitutionality Of “Landscape”, Eric James Seltzer

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

In August 2019, the College Board announced it was launching a program providing higher education institutions with “context about students’ high schools and neighborhoods when making admissions decisions.” In August 2019, the College Board announced it was launching “Landscape,” a program providing higher education institutions with “context about students’ high schools and neighborhoods when making admissions decision.” Landscape collects and organizes data into three categories—basic high school data, such as school locale, test score comparison, and high school and neighborhood indicators—that offers insight into high schools and neighborhoods. Among these indicators are quintessential measures of socioeconomic status, including college …

School District Secession In Mobile County, Alabama: A Case Study Of Adaptive Discrimination And Threats To Multiracial Democracy, Sarah Asson, Erica Frankenberg

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deflect, Delay, Deny: A Case Study Of Segregation By Law School Faculty, Briana Rosenbaum

Scholarly Works

Many histories of school desegregation litigation center on the natural protagonists, such as the lawyers and plaintiffs who fought the status quo. Little attention is paid to the role that individual faculty members played in the perpetuation of segregated legal education. When the antagonists in the historiographies do appear, it is usually as anonymous individuals and groups. Thus, “the Board of Regents” refused to change its policy and “the University” denied a person’s application.

But recently discovered and rarely accessed historic documents provide proof of the direct role that some law school faculty members played in the perpetuation of segregation. …

Racial And Cultural Competence Through The Eyes Of Public-School Educators, Laquita Mcmillion

Dissertations

The discussion of racial and cultural competence in public schools today is necessary. The student population of public schools across the United States has significantly grown racially and culturally diverse. Through the use of a narrative inquiry and a critical lens, this study explored the perception and experiences of public-school educators focused on the topic of racial and cultural competence as it relates to their classroom practice and educational policies. The focus of this research (1) describes and analyzes my personal experiences through the use of qualitative approaches, (2) shares the experiences and perceptions of three public-school educators, and (3) …

Removing Police From Schools Using State Law Heightened Scrutiny, Christina Payne-Tsoupros

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article argues that school police, often called school resource officers, interfere with the state law right to education and proposes using the constitutional right to education under state law as a mechanism to remove police from schools.

Disparities in school discipline for Black and brown children are well-known. After discussing the legal structures of school policing, this Article uses the Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) theoretical framework developed by Subini Annamma, David Connor, and Beth Ferri to explain why police are unacceptable in schools. Operating under the premise that school police are unacceptable, this Article then analyzes mechanisms to …

Removing Police From Schools Using State Law Heightened Scrutiny, Christina Payne-Tsoupros

Journal Articles

This Article argues that school police, often called school resource officers, interfere with the state law right to education and proposes using the constitutional right to education under state law as a mechanism to remove police from schools. Disparities in school discipline for Black and brown children are well-known. After discussing the legal structures of school policing, this Article uses the Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) theoretical framework developed by Subini Annamma, David Connor, and Beth Ferri to explain why police are unacceptable in schools. Operating under the premise that school police are unacceptable, this Article then analyzes mechanisms to …

How Increased Legal Representation Can Close The Gap In Special Education Discrepancies, Todd Carney

Touro Law Review

This piece looks at how the existing education regime has led to disparities between white and minority students. The paper finds that the disparity gets even worse when special education is factored in. The reason so many low-income and minority students with disabilities receive such a poor education is that they do not have the proper legal representation to demand the rights that they are guaran- teed under US law. This paper looks at how low-income and minority families have been cheated out of proper legal representation in other areas and how receiving the necessary legal representation can lead to …

A Reflection On Integration, Neil G. Williams

Faculty Publications & Other Works

I wrote this essay in December 2019, shortly after attending the 2019 LatCrit Conference in Atlanta. I grew up in Atlanta during the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s into the early 1970s. Attending the 2019 LatCrit Conference brought back memories of my experiences as part of the earliest waves of black students sent to integrate Atlanta's historically all-white high schools. In the intervening years, too many elementary and high schools in America remain segregated (or, in many instances, only nominally integrated) as broad swaths of America have abandoned the commitment to ensuring that our young people …

Educational Adequacy Challenges: The Impact On Minnesota Charter Schools, Wendy Baudoin

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deficit Frame Dangers, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

Civil rights advocates have long viewed litigation as an essential, if insufficient, catalyst of social change. In part, it is. But in critical respects that remain underexplored in legal scholarship, civil rights litigation can hinder short- and long-term projects of racial justice.

Specifically, certain civil rights doctrines reward plaintiffs for emphasizing community deficits—or what I term a “deficit frame.” Legal doctrine, in other words, invites legal narratives that track, activate, and reinforce pernicious racial stereotypes. This dynamic, even in the context of well-intended litigation, risks entrenching conditions that drive racial inequality—including the conditions that litigation is often intended to address. …

Getting At The Root Instead Of The Branch: Extinguishing The Stereotype Of Black Intellectual Inferiority In American Education, A Long-Ignored Transitional Justice Project, Camille Lamar Campbell

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.