At issue in Goss v. Board of Education (1963) was the constitutionality of the transfer provisions of a desegregation plan in Tennessee.

In Good News Club v. Milford Central School (2001), the Supreme Court ruled that a religious group could not be denied the use of a public school’s facilities after school hours if the facilities were available to other groups promoting similar issues, namely, the moral and character development of children.

Gong Lum v. Rice (1927) stands out as the case within which the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly extended the pernicious doctrine of “separate but equal” that it introduced at the national level to public education in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District (1979) addressed a teacher’s right to free speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District (1998) established the legal standards under which school boards that receive federal funds can be liable for damages for teacher-to-student sexual harassment under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

In Freeman v. Pitts (1992), the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a trial federal court had discretion to relinquish jurisdiction over portions of a school board’s constitutionally required desegregation plan before it declared that all aspects of a school district’s operations were declared “unitary” or free from discrimination.

Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools (1992) is a seminal case with regard to sexual harassment in schools that receive federal financial assistance.

Florence County School District Four v. Carter (1993) addressed the issue of the reimbursement of private tuition costs to parents who disagree with their child’s individualized education program (IEP) and unilaterally place the child in a private school.

At issue in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (1998) was whether a public employer could be liable for sexual harassment committed by supervisory employees. 

In Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township (1947), the Supreme Court upheld a statute from New Jersey and a local school board’s authorization to reimburse parents for the expense of bus transportation to school on public transportation for students who attended religiously affiliated, nonpublic schools. 

In Epperson v. State of Arkansas (1968), the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a state law that barred the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution because although the statute obviously did not coerce anyone to support religion or participate in any religious practice

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Engel v. Vitale (1962), its first ever case on prayer in public schools, is popularly known as the “Regents Prayer” decision.

In Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990), the Supreme Court ruled that their religious beliefs do not necessarily exempt people from compliance with neutral, generally applicable laws.

In Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004), the Supreme Court faced two issues.

At issue in Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) was whether a Louisiana statute titled “Balanced Treatment Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Institutions Act” was unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.

Dowell v. Board of Education of Oklahoma City Public Schools is the name given to a series of cases that moved back and forth through the federal courts for more than three decades as Oklahoma schools worked to achieve desegregation to the court’s satisfaction.

In DeFunis v. Odegaard (1974), a law school applicant challenged the University of Washington Law School’s race-conscious admission policy, charging that his rejection constituted discrimination.

At issue in Debra P. v. Turlington (1981) was the validity of student testing. In 1978, the Florida legislature conditioned the receipt of a high school diploma on passing a state competency examination.

Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman, I and II (1977, 1979) are judicially related school desegregation cases that originated in the city of Dayton, Ohio. In Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman I (1977), minority student plaintiffs sued the Dayton school board asserting that, acting in concert with the State Board of Education of Ohio...

Davis v. School Commissioners of Mobile County (1971) involved the adequacy of a desegregation plan for Mobile County, Alabama.

Acting on the complaint of a young girl whose classmate made inappropriate sexual overtures, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (1999) that school boards could be held liable for such harassment under certain circumstances.

In a unanimous 9-to-0 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Davenport v. Washington Education Association (2007), ruled that states do not violate the First Amendment in requiring public sector labor unions to obtain the formal permission of nonunion member employees before spending their fair-share or agency shop fees on politically related expenses, including campaigns and elections. 

At issue in Cumming v. Board of Education of Richmond County (1899) was whether denying a high school education to African American students was a “clear and unmistakable disregard of rights” (p. 545) in violation of their constitutional protections under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Crawford v. Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles (1982) involved two decades of legal wrangling over the desegregation of Los Angeles schools, including several rounds through California’s state courts and a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Amos (1987), former employees of unincorporated divisions of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) who refused or were ineligible to become members of the church challenged their being dismissed from their jobs.

In Cooper v. Aaron (1958), the U.S. Supreme Court responded to an early skirmish in the battle over school segregation, in which nine students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the 1957–1958 school year had to confront the fierce resistance of Governor Faubus and the state legislature.

At issue in Connick v. Myers (1983) was whether a former assistant district attorney (ADA) who was dismissed for conducting a survey about morale in the district attorney’s office was speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern.

At issue in Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (PEARL) v. Regan (1980) was the constitutionality of a statute from New York that authorized the use of public funds to reimburse churchrelated and secular nonpublic schools for performing various state-mandated testing and reporting services.

In Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state legislation that provided monies for the maintenance and repair of religious facilities as well as...