Alabama Supreme Court Will Review 1993 Decision It Previously Affirmed

On January 11, 2002, the Alabama Supreme Court, on its own initiative, informed the parties to Alabama's education equity and adequacy case, ACE v. Siegelman, that it was placing the case on its rehearing docket. In this extraordinary order, the court re-opened a 1993 case that it had affirmed on four previous occasions and gave the parties 28 days to submit briefs on whether plaintiffs had standing, whether the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction and other essential foundations of the 1993 liability decision in favor of plaintiffs.

One dissenting justice termed the order "blatant judicial activism and a raw abuse of power." A Birmingham News editorial (Jan. 15, 2002) strongly criticized the decision and asserted that "every child has a right to an adequate education." Ironically, the Attorney General on behalf of the state (and in accord with plaintiffs) had argued to the court that the 1993 decision was final.

In that 1993 decision, the trial court found that Alabama's constitution has an Equal Protection provision and that the state's education finance system violated that provision. The trial court also held that "Amendment No. 111" to the Alabama Constitution, passed in 1956 to avoid desegregation, was unconstitutional. The supreme court held in 1999 that there is no equal protection provision, and in its latest order asks the parties to re-argue whether Amendment No. 111 was constitutional and, if so, what effect it had.

For a brief history of this litigation and other recent education finance news see Alabama.

Prepared January 12, 2002.