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 federal government to award construction contracts to historically disadvantaged individuals. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Rothe’s claim that the challenged statute creates racial classifications and that the court must apply a strict scrutiny analysis. On Wednesday of this week, October 19, Rothe filed a Petition for Rehearing and for Rehearing En Banc. As Meriem Hubbard explains, PLF assisted Rothe’s attorney on the petition, and will continue to support Rothe as amicus if the a petition for certiorari is filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Individual Rights – Education Reform. The California Court of Appeal issued a disappointing decision on Monday in Anderson Union High School District v. Shasta Secondary Home School. The case concerns the extent to which non-classroom based charter schools may open resource centers in the county where they are located. Joshua Thompson explains that the court interpreted the California Charter Schools Act in a manner that results in an awkward distribution of permissible locations for these resource centers. As a result of the court’s decision, many home schooled children in the rural areas of California will not have the same opportunities to use public educational resources as students in more urban areas.