Court Cases

Education news, analysis, and opinion about lawsuits and legal proceedings
Students sit on bleachers after science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities, facilitated by the Kentucky Science Center, in Simpsonville Elementary School, Nov. 18, 2025, in Simpsonville, Ky.
Students sit on bleachers after STEM activities facilitated by the Kentucky Science Center at Simpsonville Elementary School in Simpsonville, Ky., on Nov. 18, 2025. The school district serving Simpsonville is one of nine in north-central Kentucky that was able to hire new school counselors with the help of a federal grant that the Trump administration terminated last year.
Jon Cherry/AP
Law & Courts The Stark Divide in the States Recouping K-12 Grants Cut by Trump's Ed. Dept.
A fifth of lawsuits challenging Trump admin. education policies have come from multistate coalitions.
Matthew Stone, January 22, 2026
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8 min read
Ten Commandments Texas 25322117067170
A Ten Commandments poster is seen with boxes of others before they were delivered to local public schools in New Braunfels, Texas, on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. A federal appeals court appears open to reviving blocked Ten Commandments school laws in Louisiana and Texas.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Law & Courts Full Appeals Court Signals Openness to Ten Commandments Classroom Laws
The full 5th Circuit seemed sympathetic to unblocking two laws requiring Ten Commandments displays.
Mark Walsh, January 21, 2026
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5 min read
A group of California parents has asked the nation's highest court to reinstate a federal district court decision that said parents have a federal constitutional right to be informed by schools of any gender nonconformity and social transitions by their children. The Supreme Court building is seen on Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington.
A group of California parents has asked the nation's highest court, whose building is shown on Jan. 13, 2026, to reinstate a federal district court decision that said parents have a federal constitutional right to be informed by schools of any gender nonconformity or social transition by their children.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Law & Courts Parents Ask Supreme Court to Restore Ruling on Gender Disclosure
Parents asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene over school gender-identity policies in California.
Mark Walsh, January 14, 2026
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4 min read
Becky Pepper-Jackson holds hands with her mother Heather Jackson outside the Supreme Court after arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams on Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington.
Becky Pepper-Jackson holds hands with her mother, Heather Jackson, outside the U.S. Supreme Court after arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on female athletic teams on Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Signals Support for State Bans on Trans Girls in Sports
The U.S. Supreme Court weighed Idaho and West Virginia laws that bar transgender girls from sports.
Mark Walsh, January 13, 2026
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7 min read
School bus outside Patterson High School in St. Mary Parish, in Louisiana.
School bus outside Patterson High School in St. Mary Parish, in Louisiana.
Brad Kemp/The Advocate
Law & Courts After 60 Years, a Louisiana District Fights to Exit Federal Desegregation Order
St. Mary Parish is on the frontlines of a legal battle to end ongoing school desegregation cases dating back to the civil rights era.
Patrick Wall, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La., January 12, 2026
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6 min read
Fifteen year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson tosses a discus at home in West Virginia.
Fifteen-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson tosses a discus at home in West Virginia. Her challenge to the state’s ban on transgender girls in school sports is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Scout Tufankjian/ACLU
Law & Courts School Sports Case Reaches the Supreme Court at a Fraught Time for Trans Rights
The justices will consider state laws that bar transgender girls from participating in female sports.
Mark Walsh, January 9, 2026
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8 min read
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks during a press conference on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. Murrill teamed up with the Trump administration to ask a judge to end a decades-old desegregation order under which the state's DeSoto Parish Schools were under federal oversight.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks during a press conference on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. Murrill teamed up with the Trump administration to ask a judge to end a decades-old desegregation order under which the state's DeSoto Parish Schools were under federal oversight.
Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP
Law & Courts Judge Ends School Desegregation Order at Trump Administration's Request
The decision ends decades of federal oversight to ensure schools' compliance with the order to desegregate.
Patrick Wall, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, January 7, 2026
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4 min read
Students carrying pride flags and transgender flags leave Great Oak High School on Sept. 22, 2023, in Temecula, Calif., after walking out of the school in protest of the Temecula school district policy requiring parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender.
Students carrying pride flags and transgender flags leave Great Oak High School on Sept. 22, 2023, in Temecula, Calif., after walking out of the school in protest of the Temecula school district policy requiring parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender. But many districts in California follow a state policy limiting when schools can inform parents about a student's gender identity without the student's consent.
Anjali Sharif-Paul/The Orange County Register via AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Blocks Ruling Bolstering Parental Rights Over Gender Identity
A federal appeals court blocked a groundbreaking ruling over the disclosure of students' gender identities.
Mark Walsh, January 6, 2026
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4 min read
Stephon Thompson, an administrator at Stevenson Elementary School, directs students through the doors at the beginning of the school day in Southfield, Mich., on Feb. 28, 2024.
Stephon Thompson directs students through the doors at the beginning of the school day at Stevenson Elementary School in Southfield, Mich., on Feb. 28, 2024. The school has added on-site social services in recent years as a community school. The Trump administration has recently discontinued 19 federal grants that help schools become local service hubs for students and their families.
Samuel Trotter for Education Week
Education Funding Educator Layoffs Loom as Canceled Community Schools Grants Remain in Limbo
Three legal challenges and bipartisan backlash have followed the Trump administration's funding cuts.
Mark Lieberman, January 6, 2026
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5 min read
Students carrying pride and transgender flags leave Great Oak High School in Temecula, Calif., on Sept. 22, 2023, after walking out of the school in protest of the Temecula school district policy requiring parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender.
Students carrying pride and transgender flags leave Great Oak High School in Temecula, Calif., on Sept. 22, 2023, after walking out of the school in protest of the Temecula school district policy requiring parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender.
Anjali Sharif-Paul/The Orange County Register via AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Halts Ruling Letting Teachers Disclose Students' Gender Identity
A federal appeals court has temporarily paused enforcement of the ruling but has not yet decided whether to grant a longer-term stay.
Kristen Taketa, The San Diego Union-Tribune, January 2, 2026
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3 min read
Randi Weingarten speaks at a press conference at Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 2, 2025.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks at a press conference in Philadelphia on Sept. 2, 2025. Weingarten says that cuts to federal education funds by the Trump administration "are only hurting young people."
Rachel Wisniewski for Education Week
Education Funding ‘Terminated on a Whim’: The AFT Sues Trump’s Ed. Dept. Over Funding Cuts
The AFT and a Chicago-area nonprofit argue the cuts happened without following required procedures.
Lauraine Langreo & Caitlynn Peetz Stephens, December 30, 2025
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4 min read
Reducing, removing or overcoming financial barriers, financial concept : US dollar bag on a maze puzzle.
William Potter/iStock
Education Funding School Mental Health Projects Canceled by Trump Might Still Survive
The end of funding could still be days away, but a new court order offers some hope for grantees.
Matthew Stone, December 24, 2025
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6 min read
Teacher’s aide Amelia Mester, wrapped in a Pride flag, urges Escondido Union High School District not to have employees notify parents if they believe a student may be transgender in November 2025. A policy on the issue in the city’s elementary school district is the subject of a federal class-action lawsuit in which a judge just sided against the district.
Teacher’s aide Amelia Mester, wrapped in a Pride flag, urges Escondido Union High School District not to have employees notify parents if they believe a student may be transgender. A policy on the issue in the city’s elementary school district is the subject of a federal class-action lawsuit in which a judge just ruled against the district.
Charlie Neuman for The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS
Law & Courts Schools Can’t Bar Teachers From Telling Parents If Kids Are Transgender, Judge Rules
The injunction bans any public school employee from misleading parents about their child’s gender presentation at school.
Kristen Taketa, The San Diego Union-Tribune, December 24, 2025
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5 min read
Photo of stone columns.
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Law & Courts Federal Appeals Court Upholds 8th Grader's Expulsion Over Gun Comments in Class
Shortly after a nearby mass school shooting, a student allegedly discussed bringing a gun to school.
Mark Walsh, December 22, 2025
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3 min read
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