NAACP Prepares to Enforce Education Clause Part 2

I want to use this post to explain why we're sharing NAACP's litigation objectives in a public forum.    Some time ago, Chris Stewart invited me to a pizza for progress discussion in which we talked about enforcing the constitutional right to an education in Minnesota, among other things.  During the discussion, the topic of choice is yours arose, and some persons expressed the concern that it hadn't been fully responsive to the community it was designed to serve.   I don't have a position on that, because I wasn't involved.   But, it points out how important it is to conduct a litigation like this in a way that responds to and includes the people it is designed to serve. 

Currently, there is a new integration suit pending in the Twin Cities, the Cruz-Guzman litigation, and its being conducted in the name of individual plaintiffs, one of whom is of course Cruz-Guzman.   The litigation is seeking to represent all students and potential students in the target districts, and one way of doing that is to conduct it as a class action.  

By way of legal background, the class action rules are designed to assure that the representatives of the class are protecting the rights of the persons they purport to represent.    For example, if Sadie buys a television from a local store and discovers that the television is being sold all over Minnesota deceptively, Sadie might bring a class action seeking damages for members of the class.   The mere fact that she bought the television, however, doesn't allow her to represent everyone else who bought a television of that kind.   Maybe many of the people who bought the television are very satisfied.  Or, maybe they don't want Sadie to represent them, because they have their own attorney, or they think that Sadie won't do a good job representing them, or that Sadie will give up too easily and take too little, or try to accept a big settlement for herself, in return for selling out the rest of the injured parties.

So, the class action rules require Sadie to file a motion to seek court permission to represent the class.  Once the class action is certified, then Sadie has a fiduciary responsibility to the class members, and her attorneys fees, and any settlement are subject to court approval to protect the rest of the class.  Because Sadie's case is seeking damages, all of the other potentially injured parties will get notices as the litigation progresses, and if a settlement is proposed, they will get to comment on that.  Moreover, they will be given an opportunity to "opt out" of the lawsuit, so that Sadie's case won't impact them. 

In the case of a class action like Cruz-Guzman, the requirements for class certification are somewhat relaxed.  The relief is going to be injunctive or declaratory.   If there will be changes in the delivery of education, it is likely to impact everyone, or nobody.   However, the representatives still have to prove that they will represent the class faithfully.   In fact, in the Minneapolis litigation, the state is challenging certification on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not represent all of the class, and in fact, that the class is divided over the claims and the relief requested.   

In the case of an organization, the organization brings the case to further organizational goals, on behalf of its members and the people that it serves.   One of the things that St. Cloud NAACP is doing to assure that it faithfully represents the impacted families is to launch efforts to build links to those who will benefit from the litigation.   Sharing its intentions and inviting feedback is one aspect of that effort.   NAACP, of course, has special credibility and experience in representing the interests of families with educational challenges.  But its still important that the organization works hard to manage its efforts in the best interests of students and families.  To this end, initiatives to link to state and local organizations have been launched, such as ACLU, the National NAACP, AMSD, Isaiah, and others.  St. Cloud NAACP plans reporting and continuing to listen.

In St. Cloud, NAACP has reached out to the school district leadership, United Way, Partners for Students Success, Promise Neighborhoods, and is assembling a stakeholder advisory panel.  Minnesota's education system needs fixing, and its going to take a lot of thinking and listening to repair it.  To this end, the next post will continue to discuss why the system is failing the St. Cloud and other districts that serve large numbers of students with educational disadvantages, and what NAACP proposes to do about that.