In 1981 the federal courts decided hundreds of cases involving schools relating to civil rights statutes, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawsuits concerning the handicapped involved such issues as the costs of determining what is equal opportunity in education, full-time interpreters for deaf children, catheterization as a related service, and the extended school year. Civil rights cases involved the application of Title IX to employment and to collegiate athletics; Title VII and the issue of equal pay for equal work among female and male prison guards; and the application of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to school personnel. The use of intelligence tests for the placement of black students was found to be a violation of the equal protection clause. Other cases involved illigal aliens; the constitutionality of the one-house Congressional veto; free speech and censorship of school library books; the Fourth Amendment and searches and seizures; the Civil Rights Attorneys' Fees Awards Act of 1976; the liability of parents for acts of students; and educational malpractice. (MLF)