Link to Order vacating the panel decision.
Link to original panel decision and the excellent dissent from that decision.
Thankfully, the en banc 6th Circuit stopped what was frankly a reckless power grab on the part of the majority of the original 3 Judge Panel.
Yes, I know, “right to literacy” sounds oh so benevolent and, of course, “but its for the children!”
But the devil, as it always is, is in the details.
In the past, some courts arrogantly granted the power to levy taxes to themselves in the name of enforcing racial equality. In those instances, the Supreme Court rightly smacked them down for such a grievous usurpation of the power of the purse.
This ruling would have expanded the authority of the Federal Courts far beyond what the previous courts ever dreamed of.
To enforce this “right to literacy” they would draft and impose educational standards, pick textbooks, order districts to construct facilities as the courts decreed and above all, impose taxation sufficient to meet the court’s vision of the “right to literacy.”
Thankfully, the en banc 6th Circuit smacked down the panel ruling. The en banc order immediately vacates the ruling, making it null and void and of no precedential effect in the 6th Circuit.
And it is very likely we will never get a final en banc ruling. It appears the parties were close to settling prior to the release of the 3 Judge Panel Order and with that order obliterated, the Plaintiffs see the writing on the wall and will go forward with a settlement.
At least the 6th Circuit does not have to endure the humiliation of having that atrocious decision reversed at the Supreme Court.