state constitution

A charter school law backed by Bill Gates was found to be unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court, The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss reports. The court, 6-3, ruled that the Washington state constitution only allows public-school funds to support "common schools," and charter schools can't be common schools because their boards are not elected by the public.

Strauss, citing the law review article, “The Legal Status of Charter Schools in State Statutory Law,” notes that charter schools have operations that are basically private, even though they have public funding. Some charter schools are run by private education management organizations, and some charter schools refuse to share information in response to public-information requests.

The Associated Press reports two developments regarding same-sex marriage litigation in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

One, a lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania state court to challenge the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex marriage under the state constitution. A federal lawsuit has already been filed. The litigants were issued marriage licenses in Montgomery County, Pa., after PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane rejected the legality of the ban and said her office would not defend it.

Two, a lawsuit in Ohio seeking for out-of-state marriages to be recognized on death certificates has been expanded to all similary situated couples. Despite a ban on same-sex marriages in Ohio, a judge has ruled in favor of two couples on the principle that Ohio recognizes all valid marriages from other states for ministerial acts like the issuance of death certificates. Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/25/4341472/apnewsbreak-gay-marr...