Miriam Flores v. John Huppenthal

789 F.3d 994, 91 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1735, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 10028, 2015 WL 3650674
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 15, 2015
Docket13-15805
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 789 F.3d 994 (Miriam Flores v. John Huppenthal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miriam Flores v. John Huppenthal, 789 F.3d 994, 91 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1735, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 10028, 2015 WL 3650674 (9th Cir. 2015).

Opinions

Opinion by Judge MILAN D. SMITH, Jr.; Concurrence by Judge FRIEDLAND.

OPINION

M. SMITH, Circuit Judge:'

Plaintiffs-Appellants are a class of English Language Learners (ELLs) and their parents (the Flores Plaintiffs) in Nogales Unified School District (Nogales). They appeal from the district court’s order granting the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Arizona, the State of Arizona, the Arizona State Board of Education, the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, and- the President of the Arizona Senate (collectively, the State Defendants) Rule 60(b)(5) relief from a judgment for alleged violations of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1701-21. The district court also vacated its earlier injunction granting the Flores Plaintiffs statewide relief because it determined that the Flores Plaintiffs had not established a “statewide” violation of the EEOA. In arriving at its decisions, the district court followed the instructions of the Supreme Court in Horne v. Flores, 557 U.S. 433, 129 S.Ct. 2579, 174 L.Ed.2d 406 (2009).

On appeal, the Flores Plaintiffs argue that the district court erred because, 1) the four-hour English language requirement imposed on ELLs violates the EEOA because “it results in ELL students receiving less academic content than their English-speaking peers and the State neither provides, nor requires school districts to provide, ELL students with an opportunity to recover that missed content,” and it segregates ELL students from their English-speaking peers “[if] the goal of proficiency within one year has not been achieved”; and 2) the Flores Plaintiffs “have standing to challenge a State-mandated policy intended to bring about a uniform method of English language instruction to all ELL students in all districts in Arizona.”

We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the State [998]*998Defendants’ Rule 60(b)(5) motion for relief from judgment because the circumstances surrounding the implementation and funding of ELL programs at the state and national levels have changed substantially since 2000, and the current programs constitute “appropriate action” under the EEOA. We further hold that the Flores Plaintiffs have not shown that Arizona is violating the EEOA on a statewide basis, and that the facts alleged by them are insufficient to justify the maintenance of a statewide injunction.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1992, the Flores Plaintiffs filed a class action suit on behalf of “all minority ‘at risk’ and limited English proficient children ... now or hereafter, enrolled in the Nogales Unified School District ... as well as their parents and guardians.” Horne v. Flores, 557 U.S. 433, 439-40, 129 S.Ct. 2579, 174 L.Ed.2d 406 (2009). The Flores Plaintiffs requested a declaratory judgment holding the State of Arizona, the Arizona State Board of Education, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction responsible for violating the EEOA, which provides in relevant part:

No state shall deny equal educational opportunity to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, by—
(f) the failure by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its instructional programs.

20 U.S.C. § 1703 (emphasis added).

In 2000, after a bench trial, the district court concluded that the State Defendants 1 were violating the EEOA by providing insufficient funding to ELL students in Nogales. Flores v. State of Arizona, 172 F.Supp.2d 1225 (D.Ariz.2000). Later that year, Arizona voters passed Proposition 203, which implemented the “sheltered English immersion” (SEI) approach statewide, and required “nearly all classroom instruction” to be “in English but with the curriculum and presentation designed for children who are learning the language.” Ariz.Rev. Stat. § 15-751(5).

In 2001, just days after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 115 Stat. 1702, as added, 20 U.S.C. § 6842 et seq., the district court extended its original declaratory judgment statewide, “even though the certified class included only Nogales students and parents and even though the court did not find that any districts other than Nogales were in violation of the EEOA.” Horne, 557 U.S. at 441, 129 S.Ct. 2579; No. CIV 92-596TUCACM, 2001 WL 1028369, at *2 (D.Ariz. June 25, 2001). The state attorney general acquiesced in this statewide extension because of “the Arizona constitutional requirement of uniform statewide school funding.” Home, 557 U.S. at 442, 129 S.Ct. 2579. In 2005, the district court held the State in contempt for failing to “appropriately and constitutionally fun[d] the state’s ELL programs,” and commanded the Arizona legislature (which at the time was not a party to the suit) to allocate [999]*999more funds to ELL instruction, or be faced with contempt sanctions totaling millions of dollars per day. Id. at 441-42,129 S.Ct. 2579 (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

In March 2006, after accruing over $20 million in fines, the Arizona legislature passed House Bill 2064 (HB 2064), “which was designed to implement a permanent funding solution to the problems identified by the District Court order in 2000.” Id. at 442, 129 S.Ct. 2579. HB 2064 increased ELL incremental funding for ELL students, and created two new funds “to cover additional costs of ELL programming.” Id. at 442-43, 129 S.Ct. 2579. HB 2064 also established the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force (Task Force), which was charged with developing and adopting research-based models for ELL instruction using the structured English immersion approach. The statute directed the Task Force to “identify the minimum amount of English language development [ELD] per day for all models,” but specified that “the task force shall develop separate models for the first year in which a pupil is classified as an English language learner that includes a minimum of four hours per day of English language development.” A.R.S. § 15-756.01(0 (2006).

Shortly thereafter, the legislature intervened in the ongoing litigation to defend its interests, and requested an evidentiary hearing on a motion for Rule 60(b)(5) relief from judgment in light of the passage of HB 2064. Horne, 557 U.S. at 443, 129 S.Ct. 2579. The district court denied the Rule 60(b)(5) motion, finding that HB 2064 was fatally flawed (and inadequate) in its allocation of ELL funding for three reasons: the increase in funding “was not rationally related to effective ELL programming”; the bill imposed an “irrational” two-year limit on funding for each ELL student; and HB 2064 “violated federal law by using federal funds to ‘supplant’ rather than ‘supplement’ state funds.” Id.

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789 F.3d 994, 91 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1735, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 10028, 2015 WL 3650674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miriam-flores-v-john-huppenthal-ca9-2015.