Judging Freedom - Charter school’s skirt requirement for girls unconstitutional, court rules

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

Charter school’s skirt requirement for girls unconstitutional, court rules #skirt #charterschoolsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, June 20th. It's almost summertime, 2022. It's about 125 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which includes the state of North Carolina, ruled that a North Carolina charter school, which imposed uniform requirements on students by addressing the length of the skirts that the female students wear, violated the Constitution. All right, let's take a step back. What's a charter school? A charter school is a private school with its own curriculum and its own teachers that often receives aid from the government. It is not a government-owned school. The government doesn't own the building. Well, the government may own the building, but it leases the building to the private school. The government doesn't run the school. The school is run by private entities. Typically, these are hybrids. It's somewhere between a private school and a government school. It usually has stricter requirements. It usually

gets kids into college. It usually produces brighter students. But because it accepts some money from the government, the courts have ruled that they're going to impose the same requirements on private schools that they would impose on the government. Okay, what's wrong with telling the girls to wear skirts and saying the distance between the bottom of the skirt and the top of their knee and the boys to wear slacks. That's not discrimination based on gender. That's a recognition of the existence of two genders. I guess I'm behind the times here because the entire Fourth Circuit, that's all the federal appellate judges in North Carolina, in Maryland, in Virginia, and in South Carolina, 16 of them voted 10 to 6 that this requirement of the distance between the middle of the knee and the top of the skirt by a charter school violates equal protection because there's no similar requirement for boys. Well, the boys

don't wear skirts. Well, this is where we're going with overly literal understandings of the Constitution and judges intruding upon the management of schools. Where in the Constitution does it say that federal judges know what's better to teach these children at a private school that does accept some state funds than those who run the school do? But the court invoked the doctrine of state action, which basically says when there's a financial relationship between the private entity, the school, and the government, the state of North Carolina, which provides some funding for the school, then the restrictions imposed on the government, thou shalt not discriminate on the basis of gender, shall be

imposed on the school. I don't think the skirt requirement is discriminating on the basis of gender. The girls wear skirts. The boys wear pants. It's been that way for 100 years, maybe 200 years. Not anymore in North Carolina. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.