More than 100 past student members of boards of education across Maryland have joined together in an amicus brief prepared and submitted by Venable LLP in defense of a Maryland statute that allows a student to sit as a voting member of the Board of Education of Howard County, Maryland. Amici have served on Maryland boards of education from 1974 to 2023—spanning the entirety of the nearly 50-year history of student member board service in Maryland. Today, more than 75 percent of Maryland’s public school students are represented by a voting student member at the local level, and all Maryland public school students are represented by a voting student member on the Maryland State Board of Education.
In Kim, et al. v. Board of Education of Howard County, two parents of school-age children filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland arguing that the statute conferring voting powers to Howard County’s student board member violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. After that court dismissed their claims, Appellants took their case to the Fourth Circuit, where it is currently pending. Amici’s brief argues that the selection of the student member does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment because the student member is not a popularly elected position that triggers the one-person, one-vote principle of the Equal Protection Clause. Amici point out that the Supreme Court of Maryland reached this same conclusion in Spiegel v. Board of Education of Howard County, 480 Md. 631 (2022), another case in which Amici participated, in which the Supreme Court of Maryland denied a challenge to the student member’s voting rights under Maryland state law. Amici’s brief also argues that the selection of the student member does not violate the First Amendment because it does not uniquely bar students attending non-public, religious schools from serving as the student member or participating in their selection. Finally, Amici’s brief informs the Fourth Circuit about the rich history of student board member service in Maryland, which has expanded steadily over the course of nearly 50 years thanks to bipartisan state legislative efforts.
The Venable attorneys involved are Mitchell Y. Mirviss, Emily J. Wilson, William G. Bolgiano, and Elizabeth A. Sines.