Ariz. Teachers File Lawsuit Over Ethnic-Studies Law
Law & Courts News in Brief
By Mary Ann Zehr — October 25, 2010 1 min read
Ten teachers and the director in the Mexican-American Studies Department in the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona filed a lawsuit last week in federal court challenging a state law that seeks to ban ethnic studies in public schools. The lawsuit names Arizona schools chief Tom Horne and the 10 members of the state board of education as defendants.
A state law that will go into effect in December bans Arizona's public schools from offering ethnic-studies courses that are designed for a particular ethnic or racial group, promote solidarity for a particular group, or foster resentment toward a particular group.
The teachers "believe that the act is the product of racial bias aimed specifically at Hispanics, is unlawful, results in impermissible deprivations of rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution," the lawsuit says. It contends the law violates the First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution, including the equal protection and due process clauses. The lawsuit also says that Mr. Horne has no facts to establish that the 60,000-student Tucson district has violated the state's ethnic-studies law.
Mary Ann Zehr
Mary Ann Zehr was an assistant editor for Education Week. Her beats included English-language learners, bilingual education, immigrants, dropouts, achievement-gap issues, and charter and private schools. She is the author of the blog Learning the Language.
A version of this article appeared in the October 27, 2010 edition of Education Week as Ariz. Teachers File Lawsuit Over Ethnic-Studies Law
In this 2013 file photo, hydrocodone pills—an opioid—are seen at a Vermont pharmacy. School districts are arguing that the nation's opioid crisis has directly affected them through increased costs for special education and overdose-prevention efforts.
Toby Talbot/AP
Law & Courts Some Schools Will Get Money From Opioid Settlements—But It Won't Be Easy
Mark Lieberman, January 20, 2023
Law & Courts Supreme Court Asks for Biden Administration's Views on Legal Status of Charter Schools
Stemming from a suit over a North Carolina school's dress code, the issue is whether "public" charter schools act with government authority.
Mark Walsh
Law & Courts West Virginia Law Barring Transgender Girls From School Sports Upheld by Federal Judge
The decision is a turnabout for the judge, who cast doubt on the law in 2021 and issued an order allowing a transgender girl to compete.
Law & Courts A Teacher Argued His MAGA Hat Was Protected Speech. Here's What a Federal Appeals Court Said
Did a principal violate a teacher's rights when she told him not to bring his Donald Trump-inspired hat to a racial-sensitivity training?
Law & Courts School District Policy Basing Restroom Access on 'Biological Sex' Upheld by Appeals Court
The sharply divided appellate court rules against transgender student Drew Adams and possibly tees up a major fight in the Supreme Court.
Transgender student Drew Adams speaks with reporters outside a federal courthouse in Atlanta in 2019. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled against him on Dec. 30.
Ron Harris/AP