Akron Board v. State Board

56 F.R.D. 385, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12127
District Court, N.D. Ohio·Decided September 1, 1972·No. No. C 72-809·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

BATTISTI, Chief Judge.

The defendants have moved to dismiss this action on the ground that neither plaintiff has standing to bring this cause pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs, the Akron Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools of Akron, allege that this action arises under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and [387] invoke this Court’s jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343.

Plaintiff Akron Board of Education is a body corporate and politic organized to operate free schools with the Akron City School District and is empowered by state statute to bring suit in its own name for the purpose of enforcing its rights and responsibilities under the law. The plaintiffs wish to restrain and enjoin the transfer of the Sachett Hills area for the Akron City School District to the adjacent Summit County Boston-North Hampton School District purportedly pursuant to Section 3311.24 of the Ohio Revised Code, because such a transfer would affect the racial composition of the Akron schools and on other grounds.

In order to evaluate whether the plaintiffs in this case possess the requisite standing, an analysis of the law of standing and the language of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343 is required. It is generally agreed that the role of the judiciary is the protection of interests specifically affected by an allegedly illegal official action. As Professor Jaffe has described it:

“. . . when the plaintiff is not able to satisfy the requirement of special interest, when he brings his action as a representative of the general public, the propriety of judicial intervention is sharply questioned. It is not that private interests and the public interests are mutually exclusive elements of the common weal. The protection of private rights is an essential constituent of the public interest and conversely, without a well-ordered state there could be no enforcement of private rights. Private and public interests are both in a substantive and in a procedural sense aspects of the totality of the legal order. (Footnote omitted) But this truth offers little help in determining the proper role of judicial control of public officers. It may still be argued that judicial control is more necessary, more apt, or more feasible in controversies which specifically affect the interests of the litigants, and that in the absence of special injury the judiciary should not intervene.” (Jaffe, Judicial Control of Administrative Action, 459.)

The question of standing in the federal courts is considered within the framework of “cases” and “controversies.” See Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433, 464, 59 S.Ct. 972, 83 L.Ed. 1385 (concurring opinion). Apart from the jurisdictional requirement, the Supreme Court has developed a series of rules of self-restraint for its own governance which include:

“The Court will not pass upon the validity of a statute upon complaint of one who fails to show that he is injured by its operation (citation and footnote omitted.) Among the many applications of this rule, none is more striking than the denial of the right of challenge to one who lacks a personal or property right. Thus, the challenge by a public official interested only in the performance of his official duty will not be entertained. Columbus & Greenville Ry. Co. v. Miller, 283 U.S. 96, 99, 100 [, 51 S.Ct. 392, 75 L.Ed. 861].” Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288, 347-348, 56 S.Ct. 466, 483, 80 L.Ed.2d 688 (concurring opinion by Brandeis, J.).

These rules of self-restraint will be examined concurrently with a discussion of the constitutional requirements.

“In terms of Article III limitations on federal court jurisdiction, the question of standing is related only to whether the dispute sought to be adjudicated will be presented in an adversary context and in a form historically viewed as capable of judicial resolution.” Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 101, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 1953, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968). When reviewing questions of standing, two criteria must be met. First, it must be established that the plaintiff has suffered injury in fact, economic or other[388] wise. Additionally, the interest which plaintiff seeks to protect must be “arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question.” Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc., et al. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 153, 90 S.Ct. 827, 830, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1969).

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Akron Board v. State Board, 56 F.R.D. 385, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12127 (N.D. Ohio 1972).

56 F.R.D. 385 (Akron Board v. State Board) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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