ELC currently serves as co-counsel or amicus curiae in more than a dozen groundbreaking cases in state and federal courts challenging inequitable school funding systems, the expansion of private school vouchers and religious charter schools, entrenched segregation, and threats to federal education funding and civil rights enforcement.
Protecting Public Education and civil rights enforcement
- NAACP v. U.S. Department of Education – A lawsuit challenging efforts by the Trump Administration to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and weaken federal oversight and enforcement of civil rights in education.
Preventing Privatization and Upholding Church-State Separation
- Young v. Lee – A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s universal voucher program.
- The Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville v. Knox County Board of Education – A case in which ELC has intervened to challenge the constitutionality of a religious public charter school that is attempting to open in Knoxville, TN.
- OKPLAC, Inc. v. Statewide Virtual Charter School Board and The National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, Inc. v. Drummond – Related cases challenging the approval — and defending against efforts to establish — what would be the nation’s first religious public charter school in Oklahoma.
Ensuring Access and Resources
- C.P. v. New Jersey Department of Education – A class action lawsuit seeking to reform New Jersey’s special education dispute resolution system.
- D.R. v. Michigan Department of Education – A federal class action lawsuit addressing systemic failures to provide adequate special education services following the Flint water crisis.
- Rand v. State of New Hampshire – A school funding case in which the trial court ruled that New Hampshire’s education funding system is constitutionally inadequate.
Advancing Racial Justice
- Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota — A class action lawsuit challenging segregation in the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts.
- Latino Action Network State of New Jersey – A lawsuit asserting that intense school segregation present throughout New Jersey violates the state constitution.
ELC has a long history of leading and participating in amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) briefs in significant education and civil rights cases across the country. The following are just a recent sample of that work:
- AJT v. Osseo and Mahmoud v. Taylor, key student civil rights cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Columbus City School District v. State of Ohio and Montana Quality Education Coalition v. State of Montana, cases challenging state voucher programs.
- Crosspoint Church v. Makin, urging the federal court to rule that Maine’s antidiscrimination requirements apply to all schools receiving public funds.
- Heaps v. Delaware Valley Regional High School Board of Education, arguing, with ACLU-NJ, in support of policies protecting transgender students from discrimination and harassment and fostering student-centered protocols around disclosure of gender identity.
- IntegrateNYC, Inc. v. State, urging New York’s Court of Appeals to permit the plaintiffs in a groundbreaking school segregation case to proceed to trial.
ELC’s current litigation builds on a long history of landmark education rights advocacy, including its role as lead counsel in New Jersey’s landmark school funding case, Abbott v. Burke. Additional information about ELC’s previous cases is available on the litigation archives page.