New Title IX regulations issued by the Department of Education expand the types of sexual harassment schools must address and give schools greater flexibility in how they handle hearings. But the Supreme Court's recent ruling in "Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo" expands courts' roles in how federal agencies interpret and enforce…

In this article, I detail how I revised a social foundations of education course to center major Supreme Court cases relating to K-12 public schools. Scholars in social foundations of education have articulated a vision for the field that fosters and promotes democracy and democratic dispositions. Focusing on the Supreme Court in a social…

A pioneer for women's rights and a prominent pop culture icon in a striking white collar, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is best known for her work on the bench; her fiery dissents and scathing arguments are legendary. Ginsburg's legal work in the 1970s marked a major advancement for women's rights, driven by the novel legal strategy she developed to…

When President Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, it seemed like a major civil rights victory. But that victory could feel like a bitter irony this fall, when the high court hears two cases that will likely obliterate affirmative action. If Jackson gets approved by the Senate, she will probably be making two…

The 2018-19 Supreme Court term concluded with a number of unanswered questions: What is the fate of the "citizenship question" on the 2020 census? What will the developing Supreme Court jurisprudence of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh look like in the near future? How will Chief Justice Roberts continue to evolve as the "swing"…

Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the administration could rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), with the fate of over 650,000 DACA recipients in the balance. Under federal law, DACA recipients cannot access federal financial aid, so most rely on a mix of private scholarships, state or institutional…

Even though special education law is covered in most teacher and administrative certification programs, it is an area that is continually evolving. The results of the 2017 U.S. Supreme Court case "Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District" will have a lasting impact on the future of special education guidelines; the outcomes of this…

A persistent problem in the professional literature in school psychology and related fields, such as special education, is the insufficient treatment of legal issues in terms of not only quantity (e.g., Zaheer & Zirkel, 2014) but also quality (e.g., Zirkel, 2014). The quality dimension is illustrated in the coverage of the Supreme Court's…

The last several years have seen renewed debate over the role that race plays in higher education--a debate over "affirmative action." The report first considers "affirmative action" in its original sense: the "mandatory" race-conscious measures that the federal courts have imposed on "de jure" segregated…

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Whatever its merits as a matter of policy, it was a historic legislative achievement. No prior administration had successfully pushed national health reform through Congress, despite several attempts. Understandably, the mood at the act's…

This article discusses concerns about how Neil M. Gorsuch, a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, might influence decisions regarding cases involving the appropriate scope of services guaranteed by federal special-education law, government aid to religious institutions providing educational services, and how intellectual property law applies to sports…

This invited commentary provides a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin" (2013). The author addresses the question regarding whether the newest decision about the use of affirmative action in higher education admissions raised the bar with respect to the legal doctrine of…

Fifty years ago, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." In exploring the story of the events behind the essay, and the Supreme Court case that resulted, "Walker v. Birmingham", 399 U.S. 307 (1967), educators will find a pedagogically powerful lens through which to review the seminal…

March 18, 2013, marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's unanimous 1963 decision in "Gideon v. Wainwright." "Gideon," a petty criminal, accused of suspicion of breaking and entry was the seminal Supreme Court case that ruled that defendants in criminal cases have the right to an attorney even if they cannot afford to…

The National Education Association, on behalf of three affiliates of its Florida chapter and seven teachers, last week filed suit against the Florida education department. They contend that some teachers are being judged against students or subjects they don't teach, in violation of their constitutional rights. The groups seek a federal court…