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Brown Vs Board Of Education

DOUGLAS E. BROWN; KATHERINE E. BROWN, PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS, v.WOODLAND JOINT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, DEFENDANT-APPELLEE, WOODLAND PARENTS GROUP, DEFENDANT-INTERVENOR-APPELLEE.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

No. 92-15772

June 15, 1994

DOUGLAS E. BROWN; KATHERINE E. BROWN, PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS, v. WOODLAND JOINT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, DEFENDANT-APPELLEE, WOODLAND PARENTS GROUP, DEFENDANT-INTERVENOR-APPELLEE.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. D.C. No. CV-91-00032-WBS. William B. Shubb, District Judge, Presiding.

Benjamin W. Bull, American Family Association Law Center, Tupelo, Mississippi, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Paul T. Friedman, Morrison & Forester, San Francisco, California; Elliot M. Mincberg, People for the American Way, Washington, D.c., for the defendant-intervenor-appellee.

Bruce J. Sarchet, Littler, Mendelson, Fastiff & Tichy, Sacramento, California, for the defendant-appellee.

Patrick J. Carome, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., counsel for Amicus American Association of School Administrators, et al.

George D. Ruttinger, Crowell & Moring, Washington, D.C., for Amicus National Association of Laity, et al.

Before: Warren J. Ferguson, David R. Thompson, and Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge O'Scannlain.

The opinion of the court was delivered by: O'scannlain

O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:

We must decide whether classroom activities in a California public school district require children to practice the "religion" of witchcraft in violation of the federal Establishment Clause and the California Constitution.

Douglas E. Brown and Katherine E. Brown, parents of two students formerly enrolled in the Woodland Joint Unified School District (the "School District"), seek injunctive and declaratory relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the School District had violated their children's rights under the...