Can a legal argument settle a religious debate? getty Charter school court cases of the past (and at least one of the future) turn on the wonky term “state actor.” Is a charter school a state actor or not? If a charter school is a state actor, meaning that it is an arm of the government, then it must abide by the government’s rules, including First Amendment prohibition on religious instruction. If it is not a government actor, but a private business, then the charter school exists in a Constitution-free zone where it may set its own rules, including those that adhere to or promote a certain religion. In a new article in the Drake Law Review , Preston Green (University of Connecticut) and Suzanne Eckes (University of Wisconsin-Madison) explain the nature of the problem and propose a solution. Charter schools are ambiguous. They are privately owned and operated, but publicly funded and frequently claim to be “public” schools. The ambiguity has been further fueled by court cases. Green and Eckes cite Caviness v. Horizon Community Learning Center , in which the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court held that the Arizona charter school’s operator was not a state actor. But […]

By : Markus McDowell