Judges Breathe New Life into School Funding Disparity Lawsuit

NEW ORLEANS, LA (Ben Caxton) — A lawsuit challenging an 1870 law that allowed Mississippi back into the Union which was thrown out in a 2019 ruling is back on again thanks to a new ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The original lawsuit was filed in 2017 with help from the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of low-income African American women who said their children and other black children attended schools that were in worse condition and had lower academic performance than some wealthier, predominantly white schools. U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour dismissed the case in 2019 saying state officials were immune from being sued. The appeals court said though that people may sue a state as long as the suit seeks changes going forward and not compensation for past practices.