Do children who are undocumented immigrants have the right to a free public education? (They do.) Under what circumstances can teenagers be searched or suspended by school staff? (A very wide variety.) Can districts draw school zones in irregular shapes in order to achieve racial diversity in the classroom? (They can.) These are among the most divisive issues I’ve written about in a decade of education reporting. Indeed, they are among the most divisive issues in American life. And as Justin Driver explains in his indispensable The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, the highest court has ruled on each of these questions, profoundly shifting the American legal landscape not only in classrooms but outside of schools as well ... If there is a criticism to be made of The Schoolhouse Gate, it might be that its organization, in which cases are clustered by topic instead of dealt with chronologically, dulls some of the impact of this historical shift, and makes it harder for the reader to see connections among some of these constitutional issues ... Still, this is a minor complaint. Driver has performed a service in assembling the stories of so many important education cases in one encyclopedic, fair and elegantly written volume. It will remain on my desk for years to come.

In The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, University of Chicago law professor Justin Driver presents a masterful analysis of the Supreme Court’s role in public school students’ constitutional rights more generally ... Across seven chapters organized thematically around different lines of Supreme Court cases, Driver...makes the bold claim that 'the public school has served as the single most significant site of constitutional interpretation within the nation’s history.' ... The book is best when it goes beyond the justices’ opinions to give broader context to each case, including contemporaneous responses by national and local newspapers and the background stories of courageous student plaintiffs and their parents. Though Driver doesn’t make the connection explicit, many of these stories relate to current societal debates ... Powerful as the book is, however, it feels incomplete on the role of the Supreme Court in public schools...these points (don't) undercuts the value of what Driver has written, however.

The involvement of the courts is recounted in vivid detail by Justin Driver, who sets out to rescue them from the purgatory to which critics across the political spectrum have consigned them ... Driver aims to breathe new life into the old lawyer-driven narrative. Courts and attorneys might not be as crucial as earlier generations imagined in their paeans to Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston. But if you look at the long record of judicial intervention on matters of education, you see that the courts still matter for young Americans. Unfortunately, Driver is on firmer ground for that claim when he looks at issues other than race ... what has the Court done to further the cause of racial justice and equality? ... as James Baldwin famously observed, de facto meant that segregation happened but nobody did it.

Driver [has] a commitment to the principles of equality ... telling a history of the arguments and institutions that can bring change down from on high ... restoring public education as the fountainhead of our democracy ... When it comes to the critical issue of private school vouchers, Driver is far less persuasive ... Driver endorses the idea, against the wisdom of his former boss, Justice Breyer, who noted that vouchers threaten to balkanize American society along religious lines ... Driver...calls on schools to challenge the racial and economic inequality in the broader society. He has the audacity to contend that low-income, black, and brown children have an equal right to share space with more privileged students in a system of public education. Anything less would be undemocratic.

University of Chicago Law professor Driver, a former clerk for two Supreme Court Justices, examines the intersection of the Supreme Court and the public school system in this scrupulous study of two vital American institutions. Driver smartly analyzes how the Constitution applies to disciplinary actions, free speech, prayer in schools, and searches and seizures ... Readers with the ability to grapple with complex constitutional issues will find much to learn from Driver’s independent thinking and unique insights.

In his book-length debut, Driver...assembles a coherent summary of court opinions governing a wide variety of topics bearing on public education ... Driver explores the strange twists of school desegregation law flowing from Brown v. Board of Education along with wide-ranging coverage of such topics as students' freedom of expression; the place of prayer and religion in schools; school discipline, searches, and drug testing; and interdistrict funding disparities. The author accompanies the summaries of the decisions themselves with a survey of their receptions in the popular press and in legal academic circles ... The topics are thoughtfully organized and presented in a style that is precise enough for lawyers while remaining lively for educators and concerned parents, always keeping in view the human stories behind the landmark cases ... Thorough, accessible, and always relevant, this is a valuable service and reference for legal practitioners, educators, parents, and citizens concerned about constitutional rights in the context of public education.