United States Sixth Circuit

In plaintiffs-school districts' suit seeking a declaratory judgment that they need not comply with the No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) requirements where doing so would result in increased costs of compliance not covered by federal funds, district court's dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is affirmed as the circuit court split evenly 8-8 on whether to affirm or reverse the ruling below, which had found that plaintiffs must comply with the NCLB's requirements regardless of any federal-funding shortfall.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/16/2009
• Published 10/19/2009

Judges

• Before:  BATCHELDER, Chief Judge;  MARTIN, BOGGS, DAUGHTREY, MOORE, COLE, CLAY, GILMAN, GIBBONS, ROGERS, SUTTON, COOK, McKEAGUE, GRIFFIN, KETHLEDGE, and WHITE, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Robert H. Chanin, Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C., Washington, D.C., for Appellants.  Alisa B. Klein, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Robert H. Chanin, Jeremiah A. Collins, Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C., Washington, D.C., Dennis R. Pollard, Thrum Law Firm, P.C., Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Alice Margaret O'Brien, California Teachers Association, Burlingame, California, Philip A. Hostak, Office of General Counsel, National Education Association, Washington, D.C., for Appellants.  Alisa B. Klein, Mark B. Stern, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.