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Weekly litigation report — January 26, 2019

January 26, 2019 | By JAMES BURLING

PLF files reply brief to halt discriminatory admissions program in New York Schools Today Pacific Legal Foundation filed this reply  in support of the preliminary injunction motion in Christa McAuliffe PTO v. De Blasio, in which PLF asks the Court to stop De Blasio’s discriminatory changes to the admissions process for New York Schools. For ...

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Despite reversal, Vero Beach High School still in violation of the First Amendment

June 14, 2017 | By DAVID JADON

Yesterday, Indian River County School District Superintendent Dr. Mark Rendell reversed Vero Beach High School’s decision to disqualify PLF client, J.P. Krause, from the race for senior class president. “After careful review of all the circumstances surrounding the Vero Beach high School Student Government Association Senior Class Presi ...

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Weekly litigation report

October 22, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Individual Rights – Equal Protection. In the long-running saga of Rothe Development, Inc. v. Department of Defense and Small Business, a small business is challenging the racial classifications in Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of Equal Protection. That section sets a goal for the feder ...

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RIP Andrew Coulson

February 08, 2016 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Liberty lost one of her staunchest defenders yesterday morning, when Andrew Coulson passed away after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. Andrew was a Senior Fellow in education policy at the Cato Institute. In that position, Andrew researched, published,and advocated for school choice. I have long been an admirer of Andrew Coulson’s work ...

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PLF fights for North Carolina children

December 31, 2014 | By WENCONG FA

With the new year comes new hopes and new opportunities. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in North Carolina, where the Legislature recently enacted a new school choice program for low-income students. The Opportunity Scholarship Program allows low-income children to attend private schools of their parents’ choice through state-funded sc ...

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New Hampshire school choice victory

August 28, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

This morning, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the state’s landmark Education Tax Credit Program. The Program allows businesses to claim a tax credit on their tax bill for donations to tuition scholarship organizations approved by the state. Those organizations, in turn, provide scholarships to low-income students to attend public or ...

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PLF's Jonathan Wood will be on Georgia and California radio tomorrow discussing school choice

August 20, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be joining the Athens Morning News with Martha Zoller and Tim Bryant at 8:35 eastern (5:35 pacific). We’ll be discussing why school choice benefits students, parents, and taxpayers. The program will air on WGAU 1340 in Athens and can be heard online here. Later tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be on the Andy Caldwel ...

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Lawsuit seeks to empower schools to fire bad teachers

January 31, 2014 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Should California’s schools be able to fire ineffective teachers? This is the subject of Vergara v. California, which asks the court to declare unconstitutional several California laws that hinder schools’ ability to fire ineffective teachers. For example, one challenged law allows a school to tenure a teacher after only 18 months on th ...

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Feds threaten schools with disparate-impact liability

January 21, 2014 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

The Obama Administration recently sent a warning to the nation’s schools to not racially discriminate against students.  The warning came in the form of a “dear colleague” letter, which explains how the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education interpret Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The controversial part of ...