Court Cases

Education news, analysis, and opinion about lawsuits and legal proceedings
Demonstrators are seen outside the Supreme Court as oral arguments were heard in Mahmoud v. Taylor on April 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The case contends that forcing students to participate in LGBTQ+ learning material violates First Amendment rights to exercise religious beliefs.
Demonstrators are seen outside the Supreme Court as oral arguments were heard in Mahmoud v. Taylor on April 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The high court later ruled that parents have a constitutional right to excuse their children from LGBTQ-themed lessons based on religious objections.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Law & Courts LGBTQ+ Rights, Ed. Dept. Cuts, Ten Commandments: A Summer Legal Roundup
Courts weighed in this summer on LGBTQ+ rights, school speech, and religion in classrooms.
Mark Walsh, September 22, 2025
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11 min read
Left: Republican Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman, chair of the West Virginia Senate Health and Human Resources Committee, holds a map of the U.S. on the Senate floor depicting the states, including West Virginia, that do not allow religious or philosophical exemptions for required school vaccinations on Feb. 21, 2025 in Charleston, West Virginia. Right: West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington on April 22, 2025.
Left: A U.S. map of states without religious or philosophical vaccine exemptions. Right: Republican West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey speaks at a news conference in Washington on April 22, 2025. West Virginia is at the center of the ongoing debate over school vaccine mandates after Morrisey this year issued an executive order requiring religious exemptions.
Left: Will Price/West Virginia Legislature; Right: Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts With Childhood Vaccination Rates Falling, Debate on Religious Exemptions Grows
There is growing pressure from parents and the Trump administration for exemptions to be expanded. The U.S. Supreme Court could decide.
Mark Walsh, September 17, 2025
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10 min read
A teacher helps two engineering students build a butterfly house.
The Trump administration has sued the Rhode Island Department of Education and the public school district in Providence, saying a program that provides loan forgiveness to teachers of color discriminates against white teachers.
Allison Shelley for All4Ed
Equity & Diversity Loan Forgiveness for Teachers of Color Is Discriminatory, Trump Admin. Says
The U.S. Department of Justice says the program meant to boost the ranks of minority teachers discriminates against white educators.
Alyson Klein, September 16, 2025
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3 min read
Rear view of mixed race teen schoolgirl using a laptop while having online video lesson with teacher, sitting at home.
iStock/Getty
Student Achievement High-Dosage Tutoring for 100K Kids: How a District Settled a Learning Loss Case
The nation's second-largest district agreed to tutoring and other measures to settle a case brought by parents during the pandemic.
Evie Blad, September 12, 2025
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4 min read
The Supreme Court building is seen on April 30, 2025, in Washington.
The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen on April 30, 2025, in Washington. The high court recently declined to pause a ruling allowing a South Carolina transgender student to use restrooms consistent with his gender identity.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Block Transgender Boy From Male Restrooms at School
A divided Supreme Court declined to pause an injunction blocking a South Carolina law as it applied to a transgender male student.
Mark Walsh, September 10, 2025
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2 min read
Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County.
The Shenandoah County, Va. school board voted in May 2024 to rename Mountain View High School as Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary as Ashby Lee Elementary four years after the names had been removed. Now, a judge has found the decision to rename the high school violated students' free speech rights.
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Law & Courts School's Confederate Name Violates Students' Free Speech, Judge Says
The district was the first to reverse course and bring back Confederate names for its schools. The litigation is ongoing.
Brooke Schultz, September 10, 2025
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3 min read
Vector illustration of a man in a suit with flashlight looking into hole in the shape of a dollar sign.
DigitalVision Vectors
Law & Courts Schools Sue Trump, But It's Getting Harder for Them to Recoup Money
Judges have recently ruled against districts as they challenge Ed. Dept. funding cuts and threats in court.
Brooke Schultz, September 10, 2025
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7 min read
Upside down bluish green-colored Dollar symbol and finance graph shaped #2 pencil. On white-colored notepaper background.
Getty
Education Funding State Funding for Schools Is a Mess This Year, Too. Here's Why
The Trump administration's school funding disruptions have drawn significant attention, but schools are challenged by state budgets, too.
Mark Lieberman, August 29, 2025
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12 min read
A sign for a newly-constructed gender neutral bathroom is seen at Shawnee Mission East High School on June 16, 2023, in Prairie Village, Kan.
A sign for a newly-constructed gender neutral bathroom is seen at Shawnee Mission East High School on June 16, 2023, in Prairie Village, Kan. The Trump administration's finding that a northern Virginia school district violated Title IX by allowing students to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity is the subject of a new lawsuit.
Charlie Riedel/AP
Law & Courts School Board Sues Trump Admin. to Defend Transgender Student Policy
The lawsuit challenges the Ed. Dept.'s finding that the district violated Title IX.
Brooke Schultz, August 29, 2025
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3 min read
Jackson County High School in Kentucky posts the Ten Commandments in the front hall of the school, shown here in 2000, and in every classroom, on June 25, 2025. A group of North Texas reverends filed a federal lawsuit this week to challenge a new state law that would require posting the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom.
The Ten Commandments is seen on display at Jackson County High School in Kentucky in 2000. On Aug. 20, 2025, a federal judge blocked—in 11 school districts for now—a Texas state law requiring similar displays. Similar state laws in Arkansas and Louisiana have also been halted recently in at least part of each state.
<a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?artistexact=Lexington%20Herald-Leader">Lexington Herald-Leader</a>/Getty Images
Law & Courts Judge Blocks Texas Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Schools
A federal district judge ruled that the Texas law requiring Ten Commandments displays is schools likely violates the First Amendment.
Mark Walsh, August 20, 2025
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4 min read
Attorneys from the Education Department General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025.
Laid-off U.S. Department of Education staff are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the Washington offices on March 24, 2025. The department has announced return dates for a portion of laid-off staffers.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Laid-Off Civil Rights Staff Will Return to Work Next Month, Ed. Dept. Says
It’s the first time the agency—which has been under court orders to reinstate staff—has said it will actually bring laid-off employees back.
Brooke Schultz, August 20, 2025
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3 min read
President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington.
President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. Under Musk's leadership, the Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded the abrupt cancellation of dozens of Education Department contracts, including those for the Comprehensive Centers and Regional Educational Laboratories, which a judge found to be illegal.
Evan Vucci/AP
Law & Courts Judge Tells Trump Admin. to Restore Some Education Research Programs
The federal judge found the termination of contracts for the Comprehensive Centers and Regional Educational Laboratories was illegal.
Matthew Stone, August 18, 2025
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5 min read
Students for Life of America hold a rally at Supreme Court with multiple members of Congress the night before the court is hearing Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Nov. 30, 2021.
Members of Students for Life of America hold a rally at the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 30, 2021, the night before the court heard arguments in <i>Dobbs</i> v. <i>Jackson Women's Health Organization</i>, the case in which it removed federal constitutional protection for abortion. This week, a federal appeals court upheld an Indiana school's refusal to allow a student who had started a school chapter of the group to post flyers with anti-abortion messages on school walls.
Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Backs School in Anti-Abortion Club's Flyer Dispute
A federal appeals court upheld an Indiana school district's limitation on a Students for Life club's political messages on school walls.
Mark Walsh, August 15, 2025
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3 min read
Vector illustration of a large hand holding a contract and a smaller man with a large pen signing the contract while a woman in the background is clutching a gold coin and watching as he signs.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Law & Courts Trump Can't Require Schools to Certify They Won't Use DEI, Judge Says
A federal judge appointed by Trump struck down several efforts made by the U.S. Department of Education to curb educators’ use of DEI.
Brooke Schultz, August 15, 2025
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4 min read
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