A cert petition filed by Ken Starr of Kirkland and Ellis caught my eye. The
case is Board of Education of Township of Branchburg NJ v. Board of Education
of Borough of Summerville, NJ (No. 02-1302, cert. petition filed 3/4/03).
The Third Circuit opinion is at 312 F.3d 614 (3rd Cir. 2002). Under complicated
provisions of New Jersey law, a school district can enter into a "send-receive"relationship
with another school district whereby the sending district sends students to
the receiving district's high school. The sending district pays for expenses
related to the students, and where the students from the sending district
make up at least 10% of the school population, the sending district is entitled
to one seat on the receiving district's school board. In this case, the sending
district sent 50% of the students to the high school, but was allowed only
one seat on the 10 member board. Parents of students from the sending school
district claimed that this representation violated the one person, one vote
rule, particularly where, as here, New Jersey thus far has not let the sending
district to sever its relationship with the receiving district.
The Third Circuit, relying upon an earlier precedent from the same court,
upheld the voting scheme. It said that the Supreme Court's rules for one
person, one vote did not apply to voting by non-residents (citing Holt,
439 U.S. 60 (1978)). It was enough, the Third Circuit said, that the plan
was rational. It cited its earlier ruling holding that "a school board's
broad authority over the entire school district, authority that goes well
beyond matters affecting the high school, warranted the limited representation
of the sending district." The court thought it irrelevant that the sending
school district in this case could not sever the relationship.
The cert petition filed by Starr states the issue for review as follows:
Are parents required by state law to send their children to schools in neighboring
school districts entitled to proportional representation on neighboring
school district's board of education under 'one person, one vote' principle
of 14th Amendment?"
--
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466 - voice
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html