Deutsch v. Teel

400 F. Supp. 598
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 12, 1975
Docket74-C-630
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 400 F. Supp. 598 (Deutsch v. Teel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deutsch v. Teel, 400 F. Supp. 598 (E.D. Wis. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

WARREN, District Judge:

This is an action whereby the named plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and the class they represent, seek declaratory and injunctive relief to restrain the enforcement of a Wisconsin statute regulating the busing of school children; in the alternative, the plaintiffs seek to restrain the enforcement of the policy of the Board of School Directors of the City of Milwaukee through which the provisions of the questioned state statute have been implemented.

The controversy at issue here concerns the recent relocation of Hillel Academy, a private school in the Milwaukee metropolitan area: formerly located within the City of Milwaukee, it has since moved to facilities at a point some 400 feet beyond the city limits. The plaintiffs in the action are a class of persons who are parents of those Hillel Academy pupils enrolled in kindergarten or grades one through six and whose residence is in the City of Milwaukee at a point greater than two miles from the current location of the Academy. Although they were provided with state-financed school bus service prior to the change of situs, this service has been denied them since that move. The defendants include the Acting Superintendent of Schools of the *600 City of Milwaukee, one Dwight Teel, and the individual members of the Board of School Directors of the City of Milwaukee. The Superintendent of the State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has been allowed to enter the action as an intervening defendant.

The action is brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983; jurisdiction lies under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1343. Lynch v. Household Finance Corporation, 405 U.S. 538, 92 S.Ct. 1113, 31 L.Ed.2d 424 (1972). The complaint charges that deprivations of rights, privileges and immunities secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States have been inflicted by the defendants under color of state law, and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.

On December 30, 1974, a complaint and a motion for a temporary restraining order were filed on behalf of the named plaintiffs. A hearing on that matter was held on January 2, 1975, and, by order dated January 6, 1975, the single district judge- issued a request that a three-judge court be convened under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 2284; he also exercised his power under 28 U.S.C. § 2284(3) to enter a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo pending further action by the three-judge panel. On February 7, 1975, the single district judge, pursuant to 28 U.S. C. § 2284(5), ordered that the action proceed as a class action under the terms of Rule 23(b)(2), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. On March 26, 1975 a hearing was held before this, three-judge court and counsel for each party were allowed to present their respective positions as to the merits of the various contentions that have been raised.

After due consideration of the position of each party, we find that the distinctions created by the classifications of school children effected by statute at issue here and the policy of the Board of School Directors of the City of Milwaukee implement no legitimate state interest and are without rational bases in the context of this case. The members of the Board of School Directors for the City of Milwaukee are to be permanently enjoined from allowing a situation to exist whereby the parents of pupils at Hillel Academy are denied publicly-financed school bus service while such is provided to other Milwaukee residents whose children attend schools located within the city boundaries and who are otherwise similarly situated.

I. THE ^ QUESTIONED STATUTE

The people of Wisconsin, in their collective wisdom, have created a constitutional provision to insure that their government does not act to establish or infringe upon the free exercise of religion within the State:

“Section 18. The right of every man to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience shall never be infringed; nor shall any man be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry, against his consent; nor shall any control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience be permitted, or any preference be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship; nor shall any money be drawn from the treasury for the benefit of religious societies, or religious or theological seminaries.” Article I, Sec. 18, Constitution of Wisconsin

The foregoing provision has frequently been the subject of litigation in the past as the courts applied it to the area of transportation of private or parochial students. Many such questions were laid to rest with the adoption by the voters of a constitutional amendment effective as of April, 1967:

“Nothing in this constitution shall prohibit the legislature from providing for the safety and welfare of children by providing for the transportation of children to and from any parochial or private school or institution of learning.”

*601 Article I, See. 23, Constitution of Wisconsin

Pursuant to this authority, a statutory scheme has been created to allow for publicly-financed bus transportation of certain students attending private schools. The general rules in that regard are set forth in § 121.54 Wis.Stats. which provides in pertinent part as follows:

“Except as provided in sub. (1) or otherwise provided in this subsection, the school board of each district operating high school grades shall provide transportation to and from the school he attends for each pupil residing in the school district who attends any elementary grade, including kindergarten, or high school grade at a private school located 2 miles or more from his residence, if such private school is a school within whose attendance area the pupil resides and is situated within the school district or not more than 5 miles beyond the boundaries of the school district measured along the usually traveled route.” § 121.54(2) (b)(1), Wis.Stats.

The dictates of this statute are not absolute in nature however, for, by its very terms, § 121.54(2) (b) (1) is qualified by the provisions of § 121.54(1) Wis.Stats. It is this “city option” exception that is the subject of this litigation:

“City option. Subsections (2) and (6) and s. 121.57 do not apply to pupils who reside in cities unless the school they attend is located outside the city but within the boundaries of the school district.

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Related

O'Connell v. Kniskern
484 F. Supp. 896 (E.D. Wisconsin, 1980)
Finkel v. New York City Board of Education
474 F. Supp. 468 (E.D. New York, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
400 F. Supp. 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deutsch-v-teel-wied-1975.