Education

Court Orders Hearing in Oregon Textbook Suit

By Alex Heard — April 06, 1983 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that a suit challenging a sentence in the statutes outlining standards for statewide textbook selection in Oregon should be heard in federal district court.

The sentence states that “no textbook shall be used in the schools which speaks slightingly of the founders of the republic or of those who preserved the union or which belittles or undervalues their work.”

The suit, called Johnson v. Stuart, was originally brought by a group of students, parents, and teachers, and was dismissed by the federal district court for the district of Oregon in 1978.

The wording infringes on the students’ right to free access to information under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to David H. Wilson Jr., volunteer counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu) of Oregon.

The object of the suit is to delete the specific wording, said an aclu spokesman, not to challenge the textbook-selection process itself.

The district court originally ruled that none of the plaintiffs had standing to raise these issues, because neither the students nor the teachers had “been injured in a way the law recognizes,” Mr. Wilson said.

The district court also said that the suit lacked merit because textbooks were tested against numerous criteria in addition to the one stated in the code, and textbooks may have been excluded for other reasons besides the code itself, said James E. Mountain Jr, Oregon’s deputy solicitor general.

The three-member circuit-court panel in San Francisco said, however, that the students (but not the teachers--who have been removed from the suit) have standing to sue because they have “shown an injury which has a causal connection with the application of this statute,” Mr. Wilson said.

The case will be sent back to district court for trial.

The suit was filed against the Oregon State Board of Education, the state’s textbook commission, Portland school district number 1J, and the Gresham grade-school district number 4.

A version of this article appeared in the April 06, 1983 edition of Education Week as Court Orders Hearing in Oregon Textbook Suit

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read