educ2110 final- court cases

Engel v. Vitale

Parents argued that opening school day with a prayer violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The Court found that the prayer was unconstitutional based on the importance of separation of church and state.

Board of Education v. Earls

2 students and families brought case against their school in Tecumseh, OK saying that the schools mandatory drug testing policy violated their Fourth Amendment Rights to the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled that when children entered extracurricular activities that resulted in diminished expectation of privacy. This promoted the important interest of the school in preventing drug use among students.

Tinker v. Des Moines

3 students wore black armbands in silent protest to the Vietnam War. The school set up a rule that required the students to remove their armband. The children violated the policy set by the school and were expelled. The constitutional question thus was whether or not these children's first amendment rights were violated. The court ruled that the children's protest did not cause a disruption and held that their activity represented constitutionally protected freedom of speech.

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier

A student had written two stories in a school newspaper dealing with teen pregnancy and birth control. The editor of the paper decided to remove the two stories. The legal precedent for the case came about because of the student's first amendment right to freedom of speech. The court said that school-sponsored productions like dramas and newspapers are not protected by the First Amendment

South Dakota v. Dole

Congress passed National Minimum Drinking Age Act which withheld 5% of federal highway funds from states that did not maintain a minimum legal drinking age of 21. South Dakota challenged the law because they had a minimum drinking age of 19. The Supreme Court upheld the law under the spending clause of the constitution. They said that the law did not infringe upon the rights of the states

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Dealt with the issue of busing students to promote integration in public schools. The court said that busing was an appropriate remedy for the problem of racial imbalance in schools.

Milliken v. Bradley

Dealt with the issue of busing to end segregation in metropolitan Detroit. The Supreme Court ruled that school systems were not responsible for desegregation across district lines unless it had been proved that segregation had been enforced before hand.

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Failing schools were occurring in Cleveland. The legislature enacted Pilot Project that allowed vouchers for children that wanted to move out of failing schools. Students could attend public or private schools. The Supreme Court ruled that the Ohio program did not violate Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because it passed the five-part test developed by the Court in the case titled Private Choice Test.

Serrano v. Priest

Issue was that California's method of funding public education through property tax failed to meet equal protection clause of fourteenth amendment. He was paying higher taxes for sending children to lesser or equal schools. The court's agreed with Serrano based on the equal-protection clause. Therefore, they put a cap on the general-purpose money each district could receive.

Keyishian v. Board of Regents

New York state had laws that prohibited state employees from belonging to any organization that advocated the overthrow of the US government. Also teachers and employees had to sign oath that they would not be members of Communist party. The Supreme Court overturned the Law saying that the law was vague. This overturned the Adler v. Board of Education decision that dismissed Adler from public school system due to previous connection with Communist Party.

VA Department of Ed v. Riley

The Virginia Dept of Ed allowed disabled students to be expelled provided the reason for expulsion did not relate to the child's disability. The federal government threatened to withhold all IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding as a result of this. The court ruled that withholding all IDEA funding was coercive and therefore unconstitutional.

Board of Island Union v. Pico

The issue around the case was determining if a school could regulate what books could or could not be in a public school library. The court was split 4 to 4 and 1 saying that it was not the courts decision.

Rodriguez v. San Antonio

The issue was that the funding of public schools through property taxes violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. The Supreme Court ruled that the San Antonio's method of financing was not unconstitutional. The appeals did not show that education is a fundamental right. Also, the financing system was not subject to strict scrutiny.

Kitzmiller v. Dover

This case arose due to the Dover school board promoting the idea of Intelligent Design to be taught in science classrooms along side of Evolution. Teachers and parents believed this to be an attempt of religious people to promote Creationism which is not a Science. The Court ruled that Intelligent Design was simply an attempt to promote creationism in the classroom. This violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and thus was unconstitutional.

Edwards v. Aguillard

This case dealt with the teaching of creationism in Louisiana Public Schools. Louisiana Law required the teaching of creation science to be taught along with evolution. The Supreme Court ruled that this Law was unconstitutional.