>>> "Michael Hoover" <hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us> 10/18/99 10:17PM >>>
> In a late Warren Court case, _San Antionio School District_, the Court, by
> 5 to 4 found class/income not to be a suspect classification. That would
> have been a borderline socialist revolution if they had made class a
> suspect classification. No such luck.
> CB
Believe that above was Burger court in 1973,
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Charles: Yes, Michael, it was Burger court, not Warren. I think what threw me off was that they could get four votes for applying equal protection to the facts of the case , equal spending on education. The personnel was in the process of transition from Warren to Burger, so that made the vote close.
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Michael: decision holding that US Constitution does not preclude property taxes as method for funding local schools. While court majority thought that states relied too heavily on such taxes and that fiscal disparities should be eliminated, it left any action aimed at doing so to states. Crux of matter: Court stated that there is no federally guaranteed right to equal education. Unless a state's constitution had a provision covering allocation of school resources, court would refuse to hear case.
Charles:
You are right again. I just looked at the case. The dissenters were arguing for strict scrutiny pursuant to the socalled fundamental rights strand of equal protection analysis, not as I said above the suspect classification analysis. In other words, the minority of the Court were entertaining the argument that education is a fundamental right which would be another way to trigger strict scrutiny of the disparate treatment of different school districts with different levels of tax bases for education, richer districts funding higher than poorer districts.
So, I misremembered the "income-as-suspect class" of my post.
By the way, Michigan Constitution has an "equal education" provision, but law suits to enforce it with respect to differences between rich and poor property tax districts failed in the Courts of Appeals.
CB
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Not sure that it would be 'borderline socialist revolution,' but it would be interesting to see what might happen if financial need along was held to identify a suspect class for purposes of equal protection anlysis. Michael Hoover