A federal judge has issued a final judgment rejecting Gov. Bobby Jindal’s federal lawsuit against the Common Core education standards, clearing the way for him to take his case to an appeals court.
The Associated Press reports U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick refused the Republican governor’s claims that the U.S. Department of Education was illegally coercing states to use the standards. In September, Dick had refused Jindal’s request for a preliminary injunction to block federal officials from penalizing his state if it quits using Common Core. She said Jindal failed to show any such threat exists in legal briefings and a two-day hearing in May.
Jindal attorney Jimmy Faircloth asked the judge to make that a final judgment to speed the appeal process, rather than hold a trial on the governor’s broader lawsuit against the Department of Education. The judge granted Faircloth’s request on Tuesday.
“We’ve briefed these issues extensively to her and all the experts testified, so there’s no reason practically to have another trial,” Faircloth says. “There’s no expectation of a different outcome.”
Faircloth is challenging the decision to a New Orleans-based appeals court.
Jindal, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, sued the Education Department in August 2014, accusing President Barack Obama’s administration of manipulating $4.3 billion in federal grant money and policy waivers to illegally pressure states to adopt the English and math standards and associated testing.
In her September decision, Dick says Jindal didn’t prove the state faces any possible injury if Louisiana decides to drop its use of the multistate standards and testing, which state lawmakers and education officials have so far refused to do. The judge also suggested Jindal would have difficulty winning the lawsuit’s broader effort to declare the federal grant and waiver programs illegal and unconstitutional.
