Federal court strikes down discriminatory AZ law banning Mexican-American Studies

Gabe Ortiz at Daily Kos has a good summary of how our lawless Tea-Publican legislature’s intentional racial discrimination has ended in yet another loss in court, and they are sticking the residents of Arizona with paying their attorneys fees and costs. Federal judge permanently blocks Arizona from banning Mexican-American studies:

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima has permanently banned Arizona education officials from enforcing a Republican-created law that banned Mexican-American studies in Tucson schools, calling the 2010 legislation “not for a legitimate educational purpose, but for an invidious discriminatory racial purpose and a politically partisan purpose.” One of the creator’s numerous racist posts (our own Thucky) probably gave that away. While Judge Tashima had declared the law unconstitutional back in August, this week’s ruling “put the final nail in the coffin,” per Roque Planas:

Conservative lawmakers led by then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and then-state Sen. John Huppenthal, who later succeeded Horne, derided Tucson’s Mexican-American studies curriculum as an anti-American politicization of public school classrooms. To shut the classes down, they spearheaded the passage of a state law in 2010 that prohibited classes aimed at students of a specific ethnicity, that fostered racial discord or that encouraged the overthrow of the U.S. government.

Research showed “students who participated outperformed their peers in grades and standardized tests,” with Curtis Acosta, a program founder, saying that “for many of them, it was the first time they read a book at all.” But the school board voted to end the program after officials threatened to cut off funding. However, Huppenthal’s attempt to squash brown history backfired, after “the publicity generated by the court battle spurred efforts in other states to create ethnic studies programs modeled on or influenced by the Tucson classes”:

When the legal battle came to a head over the summer, Tashima ruled that lawmakers had violated students’ First Amendment right to receive information. The Huffington Post reported at the time that Republicans who favored the ban, including the former Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, and his successor John Huppenthal, “argued that the ethnic studies classes bred resentment against whites.”

According to Tashima’s ruling over the summer, Huppenthal, also a former Republican state senator, commented, “I don’t mind them selling Mexican food as long as the menus are mostly in English.” Huppenthal also reportedly compared Mexican-American studies to the “technique that Hitler used in his rise to power.”

How quaint. After seven long years in and out of court, Horne, Huppenthal, and Arizona Republicans are yet again on the wrong side of history. And, they’ll be paying for it: “Tashima’s judgment also sticks the state of Arizona with the bill for the plaintiff’s legal fees. The court has yet to determine the amount.”

Thanks for that, Thucky. Get your wallet out and pay those attorneys fees and costs out of your own damn pocket. Maybe you can get your racist buddy Tom Horne to split the bill with you.