American public education remains one of the most litigated areas in the American courts. According to Dr. Martin West in his book titled "The Judicialization of American Education" He gave a detailed picture of the numbers of education related cases in the America's court systems below:
"The average number of education cases decided each year in state and federal courts grew rapidly in the middle of the 20th century but has remained fairly stable since the 1970s".
"The Supreme Court, between 1969 and 1975, issued a series of decisions expanding students' rights to free expression and due process in discipline cases, arguably leading to school districts abandoning disciplinary practices that relied on educator judgment". A 2004 survey found that 82 percent of public school teachers and 77 percent of principals practiced "defensive teaching" in order "to avoid legal challenges."
THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM
THE SOURCES OF LAW IN AMERICA: There are four sources of law in the American Legal System: constitutional law, statutory law, regulatory law, and case law. These sources exist on both the federal and state levels.
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: The United States of America is made up of union of states that operate a federal system of government that derives its powers and limitations as a governing agent from the Constitution. Powers not granted in the constitution are in the hands of the states.
Education is a very important entity, but it is not in the US constitution directly, but the 14th Amendment of the U.S Constitution grants the firm control of education to the federal government through federal statutes. States can accept or reject federal financial asistance, if accepted by the states, then they must abide by the federal guidelines for the use of the funds. The IDEA (The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) is a typical example of federal categorical grant to the states.
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE 50 STATES IN THE UNION: The state constitutional law originates from that particular state and does not go against the principles and the basic tenets of the US Constitution.
STATUTES: These are legislations or laws passed at the federal, state, or local levels. The laws promulgated by the US Congress (both houses), and signed by the U.S. President are known as federal statutes, bill vetoes by the President does not become a federal statutes, if the Congress overrides the veto, then the bill becomes a law. Laws made by the state legislatures and are signed by the state governors are state statutes. States have delegated lawmaking powers to thousands of agencies, townships, counties, cities and special districts known as local laws. All American citizens are subject to the rules and regulations of several different agencies at federal, state and local levels.
COURTS/CASES/COMMON LAWS: Judiciary power emanates from two sources, first the horizontal power, when court acts as the interpreter of the US Constitution, they are virtually supreme, and when the courts interpret the laws created by the legislative branch, the legislature may change or alter the law or write another law if the legislators disagree with the court’s interpretation of the laws. The vertical power of the courts lies in the hierarchical nature of the system. The hierarchy in most jurisdictions consists of a trial court, an intermediate appellate court, and a court of last resort.
In the federal system, the trial courts are called district courts, their roles are primarily fact-finding, litigants may appeal the decision of the trial court to the next highest level of court, the intermediate appellate court (United States Courts of Appeals), the decision of the appellate court is binding on all lower courts in its jurisdiction. The losing party in the appellate court may appeal the lower court’s decision to the court of last resort. In most jurisdictions, the court of last resort (the highest level of court) is the Supreme Court. The decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on all lower courts, trial and appellate.
There are 51 separate jurisdictions in the United States: the federal courts and 50 state courts. A line of authority exists within the system, such that the inferior courts are expected to follow the decisions of courts that are superior to them. The line of of authority is within a jurisdiction but does not cross jurisdictional lines. A trial court in a certain jurisdiction is not obligated to follow the ruling of an appellate court in another jurisdiction. For example, a trial court in Minnesota is not obligated to adhere to an appellate court’s ruling that is outside its jurisdiction in South Carolina. Court’s decisions are limited to jurisdictions where they were made.
The American system of law follows the doctrine of stare decisis or precedence, which means courts are expected to follow the decisions of courts in similar cases. This doctrine helps to ensure uniformity, predictability, and fairness in court decisions. The decisions of a higher court controls the decisions of the lower courts in the same jurisdictions. This is referred to as controlling authority. A lower court in a different jurisdiction may follow a decision of a higher court outside its jurisdiction, because the lower court may find the higher court’s decision to be persuasive, and use the same similar reasons to arrive at its decisions, this type of authority is called persuasive authority.
Published cases from courts can be used for precedence, less than 10% of cases decided by the U.S. District Courts are published. Approximately 40% of the decisions of the U.S.Courts of Appeals are published, all decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are published.
One of the judges of the appellate court or court of last resort writes an opinion showing the reasons and decision made on a particular case by majority of the judges. A concurring opinion is written when a judge, or judges agree with the majority of the court on the ruling, but does not agree with the reasoning used to reach the ruling. A dissent is a statement of a judge or judges who do not agree with the results reached by the majority. Case Law or Common Law referred to the published opinions of judges that arise from court cases where they interpret statutes, regulations, and constitutional provisions.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Amendments can be proposed by a two-thirds votes of the U.S. Congress (both houses), or by a National Constitutional Convection called Congress on Petition by two-thirds of the 50 states and then ratified by three-fourths of the states or their legislatures. The U.S.Constitution has been amended 27 times since its inception; the first ten amendments are called The Bill of Rights. The amendments of the Constitution also promotes Checks and Balances called Separation of Powers between the three arms of the government. A complete or absolute powers are not given to one arm of the government.
The Judiciary arm interpret the law in the form of Case Law or Common Law, the Executive arm enforces the law called regulatory law, and the legislature arm makes the law known as statutes.
UNITED STATE LEGAL SYSTEM and THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
All public school administrators in the United States must be well educated and grounded in the working knowledge of the US Legal System, in relation to public education. They must uphold the supremacy of the US Constitution, federal and state statutes, and case law in all their administrative decisions, in dealing with all issues related to staff, students, parents, guardians, and the entire community.
A clear understanding of the legal system will prevent public schools against expensive law suits or litigations. Amendments 1, 4, 5, and 14 are very important to the school systems and their leaders as state agents. All American public schools in their Administrative Procedures have policies to protect students’ rights and responsibilities, parent and guardian rights, administrators, staff and teachers rights and responsibilities, procedures for implementing disciplinary measures (suspension and expulsion of students), search of students, restitution, non-school originating criminal charges, discrimination and harassment and students’ safety .
Reference
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Yell, M.L.(2006). The Law and Special Education. Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Encyclopedia Americana, Vol 7 (2004), Scholastic Library Publishing, Inc.
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