In this article I analyze two cases that are the result of parents' complaints against education authorities for alleged indirect discrimination on the basis of their child's lack of access to instruction through Auslan in regular school settings. Although bilingual/bicultural programs for deaf students in Australia are available in some special…

Since 1996, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), located in Southern California, has been under a federal court consent decree requiring compliance with laws pertaining to the delivery of special education services and the elimination of architectural barriers in schools. In 2003, the consent decree was modified, creating…

The Supreme Court first affirmed the importance of academic freedom in 1957. Yet in subsequent cases, First Amendment precedent has displaced the concept of academic freedom to resolve disputes among competing interests on public campuses, primarily in favor of institutions. This paper draws on the concepts of path dependence and policy space to…

This article traces the Devils Tower litigation in the context of the "Bear Lodge" alliance's theoretical underpinnings, particularly the interrelationship among culture, geographic place, and religion, as well as the institutional mechanisms that regulate litigation alliances in the U.S. judicial system. It discusses principal factors…

The Yearbook of Education Law contains analyses of the previous year's federal and state court decisions that affect private and public elementary and secondary schools and higher education. The Yearbook provides summaries and analyses of relevant state appellate and federal trial and appellate court cases. Contents include: (1) Employees; (2)…

Public schools, since their founding in America in 1647, have reflected the demographic characteristics of the communities in which they are located. Because the United States has, until recently, been mostly Protestant Christian, many schooling practices have built upon the values of this faith. Pupils have sung Christmas songs at Christmas…

This article reviews federal case law that address a college instructor's right to academic freedom over classroom activities. This review shows that the federal courts have defined a college instructor's academic freedom rights narrowly in terms of the instructor's classroom activities. Institutions have a great deal of latitude to regulate an…

In September, Oxford University Press published "Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency," written by Richard Posner, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Posner's book, which explores how people might strike a balance between constitutionally protected liberties and security concerns…

In this discussion of recent key disability-related decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court (1995-2004), we (a) assess whether the Court has supported or undermined certain core concepts of disability policy and (b) examine how the Court balances the comparative rights of those with and those without disabilities. In cases involving employment…

Public school leaders often find themselves caught between groups with passionately held--but widely varying--views regarding the appropriate role for religion in public schools. Tensions are heightened by the growth of well-funded special interest groups inclined to litigate anywhere a test case arises. By reviewing the most recent judicial…

As the most unionized segment of the public sector workforce in the USA, teachers and their bargaining representatives wield significant power in the world of educational labour relations and beyond. Yet, just as the First Amendment's freedom of association clause affords unions the right to exist, its concomitant recognition that employees are…

In 2005, the United States Supreme Court rendered a closely divided opinion that extends the protections against discrimination provided by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to include a private cause of action for retaliation in "Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education." Therefore, "whistleblowers," or employees who report allegedly…

Despite the creeping resegregation of public schools, recent court decisions have been involved in the lifting of court-ordered desegregation decrees, which could arguably cause further segregation. When dismissing desegregation decrees, lower courts have relied on three U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the 1990s that permitted a lower standard…

In 2001, a federal appeals court upheld the job termination of a counselor who requested being excused from counseling a lesbian client on relationship issues because homosexuality conflicted with the counselor's religious beliefs ("Bruff v. North Mississippi Health Services, Inc.," 2001). This article provides the facts of the case and the legal…

The present article, a cross-case analysis, analyzes one aspect of the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that has generated conflict between the U.S. Department of Education and the federal court system. The conflicts arose between the courts' oversight of desegregation and the implementation of the public school choice…