Sept. 23, 2005
A
top elected state official and a leading public interest lawyer are
trading harsh words as a federal judge prepares to decide whether to
impose sanctions on the state for failing to comply with a court order
on a school funding issue.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne told U.S. District
Judge Raner Collins that the judge shouldn't consider attorney Tim
Hogan's request for sanctions because Hogan "hypocritically" argued that
Collins shouldn't consider good faith efforts made by the state to
comply with court orders.
Those orders required the state to improve instruction of students
learning the English language. Hogan, on behalf of the class-action
plaintiffs, has requested that Collins suspend the state's federal
highway funding to prod the state into compliance.
Hogan last spring lobbied unsuccessfully against legislation passed
by the Republican-led Legislature to tackle the issue and then
successfully urged Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano to veto the bill,
said Horne, a Republican.
Now, Horne complained, Hogan acted in bad faith by urging the court to
not consider the GOP-backed legislation as part of the state's
compliance efforts.
Violating a legal doctrine that requires that a person have "clean
hands" when going to court, Hogan on behalf of his clients "assisted in
creating the very situation for which they seek Draconian sanctions,"
Horne said.
Hogan responded to Horne's filing by saying it shouldn't even be
considered because Horne and other state officials had their say when
they filed an earlier objection to his sanctions request.
Horne's new filing ignores that it was the state's responsibility to
comply with the court orders but also makes an "baseless and
unprofessional accusation" about Hogan's representation of his clients,
Hogan said.
"If this court were to adopt the superintendent's argument, then
theoretically the state would be excused from complying with federal law
simply because the plaintiffs exercised their constitutional right to
lobby their elected officials," Hogan wrote. "The defendants can cite no
law that supports such a bizarre conclusion."
A different federal judge originally ruled in 2000 that the state's
programs for English-learning students don't satisfy a federal law
guaranteeing equal opportunities in Arizona. Collins, who later took
over the case, more recently had ordered lawmakers to satisfy the other
judge's earlier order by acting by the end of their 2005 regular
session.
After she vetoed the Republicans' bill, Napolitano proposed her own
plan, which is much more expensive than the Republican version. Since
then, she has suggested that a special session of the Legislature might
be needed to address the issue.
Collins has scheduled an Oct. 31 hearing in Tucson to hear the sanctions
request and related issues.