George S. McClellan

The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning (review)

Greene noted that, while Southworth did not directly address the funding of student religious activities, the Court’s decision in this case has implications for such funding as well ongoing disputes about recognizing student religious groups and institutional nondiscrimination policies. Greene concludes, “Although the University of Wisconsin-Madison perceivably won the battle, there is still no clear answer over who will win this constitutional and ideological war” (p. 275). Robert M. O’Neil considers loyalty oaths, academic freedom, and free speech in higher education as issues central to Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967). He reports his conversations with the newly appointed president of SUNY-Buffalo, Martin Meyerson (for whom he would soon serve as executive assistant), whom he convinced not to intervene before the Supreme Court ruled. However, O’Neil’s involvement in the case was even more extensive as he helped write the AAUP amicus brief to the Supreme Court while he was still at Berkeley. Ultimately the Supreme Court ruled for the plaintiffs, struck down New York’s Feinberg Law, and in Justice William J. Brennan Jr.’s majority opinion gave “explicit recognition of academic freedom” (p. 299) as a greater protection enjoyed by university faculty than other public employees. Education Law Stories is intended to serve primarily as a text in education law classes supplementing such primary texts as Kaplin and Lee (2006) or Olivas (2006). The authors’ efforts to place the cases in a broader legal context make the book’s scope more far-reaching than the table of contents would suggest. The broader context and stories offer important insights into some of the Supreme Court’s most important education decisions and will likely provide a helpful jumping-off point for discussions. However, as the editors note, these cases provide “an understanding of the scope of unanswered legal questions that remain as challenges for the educational decisions of the future” (p. 13). As with any effort to identify a finite list of Supreme Court cases, some issues are not addressed fully. This text pays insufficient attention to several key issues of education law including students’ due process rights in discipline cases and students’ First Amendment rights. The text offers useful information for classes in both higher education law and K-12 law but might offer the most to broader education law classes which cover both contexts.