Reconsidering Educational Liability: Property- Owners as Litigants, Constructive Trust as Remedy

Abstract

A half century ago, the Supreme Court handed down what was arguably its most important Constitutional decision ever. A young African-American schoolgirl sued her local school board, charging that the racial segregation of its schools violated her civil rights. The Supreme Court's decision-vindicating Ms. Brown's complaint against her school board-shaped the way the public, the media, and the legal community thought about the law for the next five decades. It is somewhat ironic, then, that in the years since, outside of the arena of unconstitutional racial discrimination, suits against schools, school boards, and educational institutions have been so remarkably unsuccessful.