By Jim Saunders ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Disputing that state policies are discriminatory and rooted in segregation, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office has asked a federal appeals court to reject a potential class-action lawsuit about issues such as funding and programs at historically Black Florida A&M University.
Lawyers in Moody’s office filed an 85-page brief last week asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of six Florida A&M University students.
Attorneys for the students contend that state practices involving FAMU have violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and what is known as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As examples, they allege underfunding of FAMU and that duplications of programs with nearby Florida State University and other universities have harmed FAMU.
But the state’s brief said that now “70 years removed from segregation, Florida presumptively has met its affirmative duty to dismantle its segregative system and has not enacted policies with discriminatory intent.” It said the lawsuit ignores other factors that play into issues such as funding.
“Over the past 70 years, Florida’s population has skyrocketed from 3.5 million to over 22 million, and its university system has ballooned from three universities to 12,” the brief said. “Those dramatic shifts have brought with them a host of new considerations for legislators: What financial strategy best serves the state’s burgeoning population? What are each university’s needs? How many students do they serve? What research do they perform? How much non-state revenue do they receive? And how much funding does the state have to allocate?”
But in a May brief filed at the Atlanta-based appeals court, attorneys for the students alleged the state has “maintained discriminatory practices traceable to segregation.” The brief said, for example, that FAMU needs to have high-demand, unique academic programs to help draw a wide range of students.
“Florida has failed to create an academic identity for FAMU separate from its racialized history,” the May brief said. “That is a product of the unnecessary duplication of academic programs at other state universities, particularly geographically proximate FSU, and the failure to offer any unique, high-demand program at FAMU to attract racially diverse applicants and establish an academic identity beyond FAMU’s segregated history.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, names as defendants the state, the university system’s Board of Governors and system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues.
In his January decision dismissing the case, Hinkle wrote that the plaintiffs did not meet a key legal test of showing that disparities among state universities were rooted in what is known as “de jure” segregation — segregation sanctioned by law. He rejected arguments about issues such as overlaps in programs with other universities.
“The plaintiffs complain that FAMU has too few unique, high-demand programs — programs not available at any of the 11 other state universities,” Hinkle wrote. “But asked at oral argument for an example of any program FAMU is lacking — any program the plaintiffs assert FAMU does not offer today because of the prior de jure segregation or current intentional discrimination — the plaintiffs could come up with none. FSU and UF (the University of Florida) have larger student bodies than FAMU and offer more courses, but the … complaint alleges no facts that would support a finding that this is traceable to de jure segregation or intentional racial discrimination.”
The state’s brief last week echoed Hinkle’s conclusions on such issues.
“Plaintiffs contend that Florida has a policy of depriving FAMU of unique high-demand programs, which supposedly traces back to segregation,” the brief said. “But plaintiffs failed to plead any modern state effort to stunt FAMU’s curriculum. They identified not one program that FAMU has sought but was denied. And by their own count, FAMU has 34 unique programs not offered at nearby FSU, including four so-called unique high-demand programs. True, FSU has ‘five times the number of unique programs’ that FAMU has. But FSU also has almost five times the students that FAMU has.”
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