Burlison vs Springfield Public Schools
I fought the law and the law won, Part 3 and final thoughts
This is the third and final installment of my attempt to sue my children’s school. It’s very anti climactic and you can find part one and two in the links below.
Finally the day of the trial was here. I wasn’t able to go, because it was held a couple hours away from me and I had 8 kids at home to care for. I was, however, able to hear a recording of it after it was finished. I was not entirely impressed by the performance of our lawyer. It seemed like he got shut down a lot by the judge. In my mind, he didn’t seem aggressive enough. Since I have never been to a hearing like this before, I don’t know if that is normal. And I find it weird that none of us had to give testimony. I guess that’s what the deposition was for? And it’s quite possible this was discussed before the trial and I just don’t remember. At any rate, the trial ended and the judge handed down his decision on January 25, 2012, almost 2 years after the incident. He ruled that the police and school did not violate the Fourth Amendment. I’ve tried to find a transcript of his actual decision, but have not been able to locate it.
After we heard the decision, we had a meeting with the Rutherford Institute and decide to move forward with an appeal and we waited. Our lawyer went before the judges in the Eighth Circuit Court, I was able to listen to it afterward and again, I thought our lawyer wasn’t aggressive enough. He just sounded so passive to me. And in March of 2013, these judges handed down their decision. The Eighth Circuit held that a school district could use law enforcement and drug dogs to seize and sniff student possessions under the Fourth Amendment. They found that the original decision was accurate and that my children’s fourth amendment rights were not violated by the presence of drug sniffing dogs or police randomly searching their belongings without permission or probable cause. You can read their decision at the link below.
United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
By this time, my son who had his stuff searched turned 18 and he no longer needed Doug and I to represents his interests. The Rutherford Institute wanted to talk to us about moving forward and taking it to the Supreme Court. Doug decided he was finished with the case. I honestly think that it was because he wouldn’t be the center of attention. My son and I talked about it and decide to move forward, at the time I thought it couldn’t hurt anything. They prepare the case and present it to the court, all the while my son is being interviewed by local news stations and papers. After a couple months, we hear back that the Supreme Court will not hear he case, so the original appeal will stand.
And that is the end…
I often think about it wondering what I actually accomplished by doing this. Yeah, for the four years or so that the case was in litigation, they did not do any of these types of searches, but once the case was over they started all over again. One time my youngest daughter wanted purchase a parking permit for when she drove to school. They sent home a paper for me to sign saying that by purchasing a parking permit she is agreeing to random drug tests. I wrote a letter back to the school saying that if they do subject her to the tests, I will sue them. I let them know that I sued a school once and I am not afraid to do it again and they never tested her. I don’t know if it actually made a difference or not, there’s no telling, but it’s fun to flex on those bastards like that.
I know that since I lost the case in all courts, my case set a terrible precedent for these types of searches to continue. Now they have legal backing from the courts. Also, if I had the chance to do it all over again, I’m not so sure I would. Why would I appeal to one branch of the government and expect them to rule against the other branch. I’m sure in the past, you can find more instances of this happening but it’s getting rarer and rarer. It’s like the three headed hydra, you can’t expect it to go after one of it’s own heads.
Since publishing this story I’ve received some praise, to which I’m thankful for. But I have also received a lot of criticism. “Mellony, an anarchist doesn’t appeal to the state.” “The federal government doesn’t have jurisdiction over public schools, why did you sue them in federal court?” “The Rutherford Institute is cringe. Why did you choose them? They’re terrible people.”
I’m just going to reply with one blanket statement. This happened 12 years ago. I was a different person then than I am now. I would do a lot of things differently if I could go back, but I can’t. It’s easy to pass judgement and act like you’re morally superior when you’re a disinterested third party. But let me just end with this. I might not have done it the right way, and I might not have accomplished what I set out to accomplish, but at least I did something. At least I stood up to the leviathan that is the government and said, “NO! You will not do that to my child.” I had the courage of my convictions. Maybe if more of us would stand up we could actually change something. We can all bitch about what’s going on, and start our podcasts and have a reach of millions, but until we actually put our foot down and say no, we are just screaming in the wind.
You can read more about the case by searching Burlison v Springfield Public Schools.
"Why would I appeal to one branch of the government and expect them to rule against the other branch." This is where I am now. 15 years ago it might have been a different story. 20 years, for sure. No judgements here for standing up for your kid 10 years ago or tomorrow.