(Section on Constitutional Law papers to be published in Loyola Law Review)
(Section on Education Law papers to be published in University of Richmond Law Review)
This joint program will explore issues of equal educational opportunity. The first panel will consider these issues in the context of elementary and secondary education, with emphasis on school financing. The second will deal primarily with the constitutionality of racial affirmative action in higher education admissions. Both panels will consider the implications of the Court’s grant of review in Fisher v. University of Texas, involving an undergraduate affirmative action admissions program.
In 1973, the Court held in Rodriguez that there was no fundamental right to education. Plaintiffs alleged that substantial disparities in educational opportunity violated the Constitution. The Court found the Texas elementary and secondary school finance system constitutional because it was rationally related to advancing local control of education; the Court hesitated to second guess the Texas legislature in light of federalism principles and concerns about judicial competency to deal with school finance systems.
The first panel will focus on the legacy of Rodriguez and how the law can address educational disparities in elementary and secondary education. Panelists also will discuss the effect of limits on use of race-conscious programs under the 2007 Parents Involved decision, and will consider the implications of the grant of review in Fisher.
In 1978, a deeply fractured Court decided Bakke. Only one paragraph of Justice Powell’s pivotal opinion was joined by four other justices; it held that a “properly devised admissions program” that took race into account could be constitutional. He envisioned a flexible, individualized program that would provide the educational ben