Court Cases

Education news, analysis, and opinion about lawsuits and legal proceedings
This is the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building in Washington, D.C., on Monday, May 5, 2025.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building in Washington is shown on May 5, 2025. A federal judge who ordered the department to restore laid-off staffers to its office for civil rights says the agency hasn't "substantially complied" with his order.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
Law & Courts Ed. Dept. Hasn't Complied With Order to Restore Civil Rights Staff, Judge Says
The judge also said a high court ruling allowing layoffs at the Education Department shouldn't affect a separate case on agency cutbacks.
Brooke Schultz, August 13, 2025
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4 min read
Seen is an image of the hat that was included in the complaint.
Seen is the “Come and take it” hat, featuring an image of an AR-15 style rifle, that was at the center of the First Amendment lawsuit <i>C.S.</i> v. <i>McCrumb</i>.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division
Law & Courts Appeals Court Sides With School in ‘Come and Take It’ Gun Hat Dispute
A full federal appeals court declined to reconsider a panel's decision backing administrators who required a student to remove her gun hat.
Mark Walsh, August 13, 2025
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4 min read
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education pictured on March 12, 2025, in Washington.
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education pictured on March 12, 2025, in Washington. A federal appeals court has now cleared a White House efficiency unit to resume accessing the agency’s records as part of a disputed data-review effort.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Law & Courts Federal Appeals Court Ruling Allows DOGE Access to Education Department Data
A federal appeals court ruled for the Trump administration in a case brought by the American Federation of Teachers and other plaintiffs.
Mark Walsh, August 12, 2025
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3 min read
River Yang, 3, looks out the window of a school bus as it prepares to depart the Meadow Lakes CCS Early Learning, a Head Start center, on May 6, 2024, in Wasilla, Alaska.
River Yang, 3, looks out the window of a school bus on May 6, 2024, as it prepares to depart the Meadow Lakes CCS Early Learning, a Head Start center in Wasilla, Alaska. Head Start providers nationwide are contending with intermittent funding delays and policy changes that have upended the program for much of its 60th anniversary year.
Lindsey Wasson/AP
Early Childhood Head Start Confronts More Funding Disruptions and Policy Whiplash
Program operators have struggled to draw down routine funding, and puzzled over how to comply with confusing policy directives.
Mark Lieberman, August 11, 2025
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11 min read
A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday, June 24, challenging Louisiana’s new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.
A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol on June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. A judge on Aug. 4 blocked a new Arkansas law requiring a Ten Commandments display in public school classrooms in four districts in the state. Similar laws in Louisiana and Texas are also being challenged in courts.
John Bazemore/AP
Law & Courts Judge Blocks Arkansas Law Requiring Ten Commandments Displays in Schools
A federal judge blocked an Arkansas law requiring Ten Commandments displays in schools. The law is one of three being challenged nationwide.
Mark Walsh, August 5, 2025
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6 min read
Students help put away supplies at the end of a reading and writing lesson at the Head Start program run by Easterseals, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami.
Students put away supplies at the end of a lesson at the Head Start program run by Easterseals on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. The Trump administration reclassified Head Start as a "federal public benefit" similar to welfare so it can bar undocumented students from the early childhood program, but the policy is now on hold in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Law & Courts Trump Admin. Pauses Ban on Undocumented Kids in Head Start in These States
The administration said July 10 that undocumented immigrants were newly ineligible for a range of federally funded services.
Brooke Schultz, July 28, 2025
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2 min read
Students ride tricycles during aftercare at a Head Start program run by Easterseals, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami.
Students ride tricycles at a Head Start program run by Easterseals, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. The Trump administration has reclassified Head Start as a "federal public benefit" similar to welfare so it can bar undocumented students from the early childhood program. Twenty-one attorneys general are now suing over that policy change.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Law & Courts States Sue Over Trump's Ban on Undocumented Youth in Head Start, Early College
The cost of compliance is so high, the lawsuit argues, some Head Start programs could be forced to close.
Matthew Stone, July 21, 2025
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4 min read
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs an education overhaul bill into law, March 8, 2023, at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs an education overhaul bill into law on March 8, 2023, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. The law includes a provision targeting critical race theory and other ideologies that state lawmakers considered "discriminatory."
Andrew DeMillo/AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Backs Arkansas Law Targeting Critical Race Theory
A federal appeals court allowed Arkansas to enforce its law barring teachers from "indoctrination" of students in Critical Race Theory.
Mark Walsh, July 18, 2025
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3 min read
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Supreme Court on July 14, 2025, allowed the Trump administration to proceed with department layoffs that a lower-court judge had put on hold.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Hope Shattered for Laid-Off Ed. Dept. Staff After Supreme Court Order
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to proceed with 1,400 Education Department layoffs.
Brooke Schultz, July 14, 2025
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6 min read
Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon outside of the West Wing following a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 11, 2025 in Washington.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon outside of the West Wing following a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 11, 2025, in Washington. McMahon is carrying out a Trump administration plan to lay off roughly 1,400 Education Department employees, a move critics say is aimed at dismantling the agency.
Lenin Nolly/NurPhoto via AP
Law & Courts Trump Admin. Can Proceed With Ed. Dept. Layoffs, Supreme Court Rules
The Trump administration asked the justices to set aside an injunction blocking its layoffs of 1,400 Education Department employees.
Mark Walsh, July 14, 2025
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6 min read
President Donald Trump speaks at an event to promote his domestic policy and budget agenda in the East Room of the White House on June 26, 2025, in Washington.
President Donald Trump speaks at an event to promote his domestic policy and budget agenda in the East Room of the White House on June 26, 2025, in Washington. Two dozen states have sued the president and others in his administration over its withholding of $6.8 billion in education funds that were supposed to go out to states on July 1.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Education Funding Two Dozen States Sue Trump Over $6.8 Billion School Funding Freeze
The Trump administration violated the U.S. Constitution when it withheld billions from schools in early July, the lawsuit alleges.
Mark Lieberman, July 14, 2025
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7 min read
Photo illustration of Supreme Court building and U.S. Constitution.
Education Week + Getty
Law & Courts Opinion How the Supreme Court Is Making Public Education Itself Unconstitutional
In a recent ruling, the high court took a step toward effectively outlawing public schools.
Johann Neem, July 9, 2025
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5 min read
Demonstrators are seen outside the Supreme Court as oral arguments are heard in the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor on April 22, 2025. 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 are heard in the case of <i>Mahmoud</i> v. <i>Taylor</i> on April 22, 2025. The justices ruled that parents can exercise their religious right to have their children excused from LGBTQ-themed lessons, which has prompted new logistical and practical concerns among teachers.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP
Teaching Profession Teachers Face New Burdens After Supreme Court LGBTQ+ Opt-Out Ruling
A Supreme Court ruling allowing parents to opt their children out of certain lessons could add new challenges for teachers.
Elizabeth Heubeck, July 8, 2025
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6 min read
This artist sketch depicts Justice Amy Coney Barrett, from left, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Justices announce opinions at the Supreme Court in Washington, on June 27, 2025.
An artist sketch depicting Justice Amy Coney Barrett, from left, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the Justices announce opinions at the Supreme Court in Washington, on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court on July 3, 2025, announced it will hear cases challenging Idaho and West Virginia laws that bar transgender students from participating in girls’ or women’s school sports, stepping into a high-profile legal battle over transgender rights in schools.
Dana Verkouteren via AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court to Weigh State Laws Barring Transgender Athletes in Girls' Sports
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up transgender sports laws from Idaho and West Virginia, among the 27 states that have such laws.
Mark Walsh, July 3, 2025
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5 min read
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