(December 17, 2012) After hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of controversial new education initiative, a Baton Rouge judge said that he will rule on the case at 1:30 PM Tuesday, December 18.
Judge R. Michael Caldwell said he will render a decision on whether or not Act 1 of the 2012 legislature violates a section of the State Constitution that limits legislative bills to one object.
Act 1 is one of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature accomplishments of the last legislative session. Educators distrust the law because it links virtually every aspect of a teacher’s professional life to a new evaluation system.
In court today, Louisiana Federation of Teachers General Counsel Larry Samuel argued that Act 1 includes so many objects bundled into one bill that it could not be fairly debated by lawmakers, and that is a violation of the constitution.
Loaded as it was with objects, Samuel said, “this was calculated to railroad the bill through the legislature.”
Depending on how the court looks at the law, Samuel said, it contains between five and eight separate objects.
In total, Samuel said the act amends 26 laws, creates 19 new laws and repeals three laws.
“The constitution must be followed,” Samuel said. “That’s all we are asking in this case.”
In rebuttal, attorney Jimmy Faircloth said that the state firmly believes the law is within legal bounds.
Faircloth said that since all of the objects in the bill can be related to teacher performance, it withstands constitutional scrutiny. “The means to accomplish an objective can be many,” Faircloth said.
Speaking after the court hearing, LFT President Steve Monaghan said that, as with the results of a court ruling on November 30 challenging another of Jindal’s education initiatives, there will be a long legal process before the issue of Act 1 is finally settled.
“I can tell you this right now, though,” Monaghan said, “I do not believe there will ever be another bill presented to the legislature that is a loaded down with objects as this one.”
Monaghan said that, no matter what the outcome on Tuesday, the LFT will not criticize the judge in the case.
“We believe that Judge Caldwell is taking this case very seriously,” Monaghan said.
Following the ruling against Jindal’s Act 2 in early December, the governor issued a stinging rebuke of Judge Tim Kelley, saying the decision was “wrongheaded.”
LFT challenge to Act 1 will be heard December 17
One of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s most controversial education initiatives will be tested in court on December 17, when the Louisiana Federation of Teachers asks a Baton Rouge judge to toss out Act 1 of the 2012 legislature.
The law links virtually every aspect of a teacher’s professional life to a new evaluation system. In a lawsuit filed last June, the Federation charged that Act 1 violates the state constitution.
According to LFT President Steve Monaghan, Act 1 bundles what should have been a number of separate bills into one instrument. By rushing the bill through the legislature in the opening days of the last session, Monaghan said, Gov. Jindal treated the constitution “like little more than a list of inconvenient suggestions.”
In a motion for summary judgment to be heard in Baton Rouge’s 19th Judicial District Court, LFT is asking that the new law be tossed because it conflicts with Article 3 Section 15(A) of the state constitution, which clearly states that bills “shall be confined to one object.”
Act 1 radically changes at least eight different existing laws “which have no reasonable relationship with, nor natural connection to, each other…” according to the LFT’s plea.
“By cramming so many objectives into the bill, public comment and debate were stifled,” Monaghan said. “Legislators were given little information about the bill, and appeared intimidated into passing it without adequate debate and oversight.”
Some of the LFT’s specific challenges to Act 1’s bundled objectives, each of which should have been a separate bill, include:
- It changes the contractual relationship between local school boards and their superintendents.
- It strips the authority to hire and fire teachers from school boards and gives it to superintendents.
- It gives superintendents sole authority to determine reduction in force policies.
- It creates a new section of law regarding how teacher salaries will be determined.
- It changes due process rights that teachers have under law.
The Federation filed the lawsuit on June 7, at the same time as a suit challenging Act 2, the governor’s “choice” or school voucher bill.
Other organizations, including the Louisiana School Boards Association and the Louisiana Association of Educators, later joined the Federation’s suit challenging the “choice” act. It is slated to go to trial on November 28.
LFT remains the sole organization with a lawsuit pending against Act 1.
Click here to read the LFT plea for summary judgment.
Click here for the original reports about the Federation's lawsuits.