The recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions "Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College" (2023) and "Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina et al." (2023), hereafter collectively referred to as "SFFA v. Harvard," have garnered attention, especially among…

Academic freedom is an oft-invoked buzzword in debates about campus speech and the American university. But how have courts treated legal disputes where faculty members have invoked academic freedom as a potential constitutional interest? And how do faculty themselves conceptualize academic freedom? The similarities and differences between these…

This article summarizes the applicable judicial analysis for cases in which special education personnel claim that their employing district retaliated against them for advocacy on behalf of students with disabilities. Providing examples of recent relevant court decisions, it traces the applicable essential elements and likely outcomes for such…

The United States has a lengthy history of welcoming immigrants from throughout the world and ultimately naturalizing and conferring citizenship to them. Yet, a number of indigenous and people of color never consented to citizenship and many still do not wish to have it. This article explores the role of citizenship as a tool to not only…

The U.S. and West Virginia constitutions acknowledge the right to free speech, which must be protected at public colleges, but Senate Bill 657, which became law in 2021, requires that public colleges protect "any lawful verbal and nonverbal speech." Furthermore, many private colleges also promise free speech to their students. However a…

School districts must not only be knowledgeable about the historical context of school desegregation, but also what current efforts are occurring across the U.S. to combat school segregation as they may help guide them in leveraging policy in their own school communities' school integration endeavors. Thus, the purpose of this "Equity by…

This case presented in this article involves a transgender middle school student-athlete (BPJ) and the West Virginia State Board of Education (WVSSAC). BPJ, who at the time was preparing to enter sixth grade at a new school, alleges that Defendants Burch, Stutler, the WVSSAC, and Attorney General Morrisey deprived her of equal protection under the…

This second brief of a three-part series explores the systemic underfunding of HBCUs in Maryland, and their attempts to correct these challenges, first through the courts and then through legislation. Maryland was one of the first states to reach such a monumental agreement in the sustainability of HBCUs. The first brief explored the national…

Seclusion, used broadly to include time-out (Bon & Zirkel, 2014), and other aversives, such as restraint, continues to be an active area of legal activity, particularly for students with disabilities. The September 2016 issue of "Communiqué" provided an update of the case law specific to school district use of seclusion (Zirkel,…

Courts have been reluctant to fully embrace free exercise or equal protection claims of school choice advocates, but recent rulings may have permanently reversed that trend, potentially compelling governments to provide substantially more resources to parochial schools than ever before. The first section of this article summarizes the origin of…

This article is a summary discussion of the main issues faced by faculty at private, often church-sponsored, universities who sought to be represented by a union in collective bargaining with their employers. The discussion begins by tracing the origins of the rule that faculty at private universities are managers and not employees under the aegis…

A 2020 lawsuit involves a public school teacher who refused to address transgender students by their preferred names because of his religious beliefs. This case is particularly significant because it is the first K-12 decision that analyzes this matter. This issue has important policy implications for schools and students.

Background: Over the past decade, courts increasingly have considered cases that involve clashes between public, secular private, and religious institutions in education. Such clashes appear to have intensified as recently as the 2019-2020 Supreme Court term, and the confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Court in 2020 suggests…

The United States Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist. held that a local school district violated the First Amendment freedom of religious expression rights when it directed an assistant football coach to stop praying on the fifty-yard line of a high school football field after each game. In finding for the high-school football coach,…

Many Americans are familiar with the First Amendment, but its application to prayer and religious activities in public schools is often misunderstood. Religious beliefs are increasingly diverse in the United States. Therefore, it seems imperative that school personnel are aware of the law and sensitive to an array of religious practices. We…