Petrella v. Brownback
2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 9088
| 10th Cir. | 2015Background
- Kansas has long regulated school finance at the state level; the SDFQPA (1992) allocated State Financial Aid by a weighted per‑pupil formula and limited local property tax levies through a Local Option Budget (LOB) cap.
- Kansas courts repeatedly reviewed and directed legislative changes to the funding scheme to ensure equity under the Kansas Constitution (e.g., Montoy decisions, Gannon).
- Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD) is relatively affluent, high‑performing, experienced enrollment declines, and has limits on raising local property taxes due to the LOB cap; plaintiffs are SMSD parents seeking ability for greater local taxation/spending.
- Plaintiffs sued state officials challenging the LOB cap on many constitutional grounds (First Amendment, substantive due process fundamental rights, equal protection, unconstitutional conditions, etc.), seeking preliminary injunctive relief and other relief.
- The district court denied the preliminary injunction and dismissed heightened scrutiny claims; plaintiffs appealed. The Tenth Circuit affirmed denial of preliminary injunction, upheld dismissal of heightened scrutiny claims, dismissed the appeal as to summary judgment, and remanded remaining rational‑basis equal protection claims.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether the LOB cap violates First Amendment speech/association/petition rights | LOB cap limits education funding and thus burdens speech and association (education = speech; cannot compel neighbors to fund) | LOB cap regulates local taxing authority, does not restrict speech, donations, or initiative speech; no right to force others to tax themselves | Rejected — no First Amendment violation; speech/association precedents inapplicable; donors and other political avenues remain available |
| Whether the LOB cap burdens fundamental rights (education, parental control, property, voting) triggering strict scrutiny | Parents have fundamental rights to education/childrearing and to spend property; tax cap interferes with those rights | No fundamental right to compel unlimited local taxation or to set public finance policy; Rodriguez and related precedent preclude heightened scrutiny for relative funding disparities | Rejected — no fundamental right implicated; strict scrutiny not warranted |
| Whether the LOB cap imposes an unconstitutional condition on exercise of constitutional rights | Conditioning initiative/taxation rights on LOB cap coerces abandonment of rights | Unconstitutional‑conditions doctrine applies only if a protected right is burdened; no such burden here and states may limit scope of local initiative/tax powers | Rejected — no unconstitutional condition established |
| Whether the LOB cap violates Equal Protection under rational basis review | Plaintiffs argue the cap is irrational and disadvantages wealthy districts | State interest in equitable distribution of educational resources and avoiding wealth‑based disparities is legitimate; LOB cap is a rational means to that end | Rejected — LOB cap survives rational‑basis review; plaintiffs unlikely to succeed on merits |
Key Cases Cited
- Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (U.S. 1954) (education equality principle)
- San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (U.S. 1973) (no fundamental right to equalize school funding; defer to state fiscal policy)
- Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (U.S. 1976) (campaign finance: political expression receives robust First Amendment protection)
- Citizens Against Rent Control v. City of Berkeley, 454 U.S. 290 (U.S. 1981) (limits on campaign contributions to ballot issue committees)
- Meyer v. Grant, 486 U.S. 414 (U.S. 1988) (struck down criminalization of paying petition circulators; protects speech related to initiative process)
- Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265 (U.S. 1986) (school finance claim must allege a radical denial of educational opportunity to trigger heightened review)
- Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U.S. 450 (U.S. 1988) (no fundamental right to subsidized education funding)
- Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 555 U.S. 7 (U.S. 2008) (standard for extraordinary preliminary injunction relief)
- Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Mgmt. Dist., 570 U.S. 595 (U.S. 2013) (unconstitutional‑conditions doctrine principles)