High Court's K-12 Docket Starts to Jell

Sotomayor Takes Bench as 2009-10 Term Opens

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to begin its 2009-10 term this week, it brought a new member, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, to the bench and the prospect—if not the certainty—that the court would take up one of the school-related cases on which it is being asked to rule.

The only explicit education case the high court has accepted so far concerns a dispute over the repayment of federally backed student loans. That case, United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa (Case No. 08-1134), is scheduled for oral arguments on Dec. 1.

But disputes with a more direct connection to K-12 education were bidding for the court’s attention as of this week, including the disciplining of a student who delivered a religious testimonial at her graduation ceremony and a district’s removal of a children’s book about Cuba...