U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel found that Houston ISD itself could not bring a voting rights claim, but since the Houston Federation of Teachers also backed a lawsuit on those grounds, it has the option to file a new suit to resolve those claims.
"We received word this evening that Judge Yeakel has withdrawn his order granting intervention in the HISD v TEA case and has stated the Federation must pursue its claims in separate action," HFT President Zeph Capo wrote in a statement published on the union's Facebook page. "The HFT will confer with our legal counsel and our member plaintiffs to review all options available to uphold the best interests of our members."
The judge also ruled that HISD, being a state entity, could not challenge the intervention on due process grounds. He also found that, because the TEA cited other, non-speech-related grounds for taking over the school board, then the court could not rule on any claims that the state violated the First Amendment of the board by imposing the takeover. This is because precedent requires the courts rule on First Amendment questions only if it results in an actual change of circumstances, such as voiding the takeover, according to the judge's ruling.
The trustees' multipronged legal strategy left other questions on the table, which Yeakel ordered be sent to the 459th Judicial District Court of Travis County, a state district court. That court will have to weigh in on the challenge to the TEA's claim that the trustees violated the Texas Open Meetings Act as well as the claim that the trustees overstepped their authority.
View a copy of Judge Yeakel's ruling below.
