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SCOTUS Application Practice - Rodriguez
SCOTUS Application Practice - Rodriguez
In 1968, members of the Edgewood Concerned Parent Organization filed a lawsuit in a Texas
District Court thought-provoking that the entity of utilizing property taxes as the essential source
of revenue for school districts discriminated against poorer school districts. They supplied
evidence displaying that wealthier schools representing primarily white learners spent more
money per pupil than poorer schools, mainly those with minority populations. Without a wealthy
tax to fund their schools, they argued that poorer students’ Fourteenth Amendment rights were
being violated.
The case was carried before the Supreme Court in San Antonio Self-reliant School District v.
Rodriguez (1973). In a 5-4 decision, which was divided along ideological lines, the Supreme
Court ruled that the students’ constitutional rights were not violated by the Texas school funding
plan. In typing the majority opinion, Justice Powell stated that “the Texas way is not the result of
against any group or class. On the contrary, it's rooted in decades of encounter in Texas and
elsewhere, and, in the main part, is the product of responsible studies by suited people.”
This question requires you to compare a Supreme Court case you studied in class with one you
have not studied in class. A summary of the Supreme Court case you did not study in class is
presented below and provides all the information you need to know about this case to answer the
prompt.
1. Identify the clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that is common to both Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka (1954) and San Antonio Independent School District
v. Rodriguez (1973).
The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) and San Antonio Independent School
District v. Rodriguez (1973) shares the Equality protection Clause under the 14th amendment
stating that no state may deprive a person within their jurisdiction equal protection of the law.
2. Explain how the difference in facts led to a different decision in both Brown v. Board
In Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, more than one-third of states segregated their
schools by law- 17 southern states and border states ordered public schools to be racially
the Constitution, which prohibits the states from disclaiming equal protection of the laws
to any person within their jurisdictions. While in San Antonio independent school district
v Rodriguez, rich schools primarily representing white students were spending more
money per person than poorer schools with majority minority students. The parent
organization argued that the funding of under-privileged students was the cause of their
school’s lack of the vast property tax base that other districts utilized. The Supreme Court
decided that the students’ rights were not violated and that the system did not
Explain how the outcome in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez