EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE AMENDMENT FREE

In preparing their briefs for the Supreme Court hearing, the attorneys for the Tyler school district, as well as the attorneys for the undocumented immigrant children, had to address two basic constitutional questions: The Tyler school board and school superintendent, James Plyler, appealed to the U.S. A federal appeals court in 1981 agreed with the lower court rulings.

EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE AMENDMENT FREE

An injunction (court order) barred the state and the Tyler school board from denying free public schooling to the undocumented immigrant children. The first was a class-action suit filed in 1977 by legal defense attorneys on behalf of 'certain school-age children of Mexican origin residing in Smith County, Texas, who could not establish that they had been legally admitted into the United States.' A federal district court ruled in 1977 and again in 1980 that the state law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Several federal court lawsuits were filed against the Texas law. The Tyler Independent School District in Smith County chose the second option. Under this law, Texas school districts could either bar from the schools the children of illegal aliens or charge them tuition. In May 1975, the Texas state legislature passed a law authorizing school districts to deny enrollment to children who had not been 'legally admitted' into the United States. After reading the background and arguments of this case, your class will have the opportunity to role play the Supreme Court hearing of this case. Supreme Court decided the case of a group of children of undocumented workers who had been denied free public schooling by the state of Texas.

But does the equal protection clause also demand equal treatment for those who are not citizens or who have entered the United States illegally? The 14th Amendment prohibits any state from denying 'to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' The equal protection clause clearly requires that all American citizens must be treated equally by the law.

Equal protection clause amendment