Education Law Center and Constitutional Law Scholars' amicus brief in Minnesota Supreme Court argues plaintiffs' claims of racial and socioeconomic segregation are justiciable

Client(s) Education Law Center

Jones Day filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Education Law Center and over twenty of the nation's leading education and constitutional law scholars in a case concerning the Education Clause of the Minnesota State Constitution. The Education Clause mandates that the legislature maintain a "general and uniform system of education." The question was whether claims of racial and socioeconomic segregation are proper for adjudication by the trial court.

In the brief filed in support of the Plaintiffs-Petitioners, Jones Day urged the Minnesota Supreme Court that Plaintiffs' claims under the Education Clause are justiciable. The Clause protects students from intentional segregation as well as the negative effects of segregation when they are unintentional. Jones Day's amicus brief argued that segregated schools are unequal schools and therefore do not provide a "general and uniform," "thorough and efficient" system of education, as required by the Minnesota State Constitution, and that these commands should be enforced by the judiciary.

The amicus brief also brings to the court's attention the "robust body of research" demonstrating "that segregated schools — especially hyper-segregated schools as alleged by Plaintiffs in their Complaint — severely disadvantage minority and economically disadvantaged students, in terms of academic performance and other crucial measures of achievement."

Cruz-Guzman v. Minnesota, No. A16-1265 (Minn.)