Appeals court finds Constitutional right to literacy for schoolchildren in Detroit case
Source: Detroit Free Press
A federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to "a basic minimum education," which lawyers claim the State of Michigan denied to a group of Detroit Public School students.
In a 2-1 ruling issued Thursday, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to directly answer the question of whether such a right exists.
"The state provision of a basic minimum education has a longstanding presence in our history and tradition, and is essential to our concept of ordered constitutional liberty," the court ruled. "Under the Supreme Court’s substantive due process cases, this suggests it should be recognized as a fundamental right."
The ruling comes in a 2016 lawsuit filed on behalf of a group of students from some of Detroit's lowest-performing public schools. The crux of their complaint was that without basic literacy, they cannot access other Constitutionally guaranteed rights such as voting, serving in the military and on juries.
Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2020/04/23/literacy-right-constitution-detroit-schools/3011945001/
Link to appeal court opinion: Gary B. v. Whitmer
The judges who wrote the majority opinion were Democratic nominees: Eric L. Clay (Clinton) and Jane Branstetter Stranch (Obama). The dissenting judge was Stephen J. Murphy III (GW Bush). (Corrected, there are two Murphy judges in the 6th circuit)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Just because. 
One reason I teach writing, literature and film!
