Carlsbad Union School District of San Diego County v. Max Rafferty, Etc.

This is a class action brought by certain California School Districts on behalf of all California Districts similarly situated, to prevent the defendant state officials from withholding certain state funds. Each District is a so-called impacted area as defined in Public Law 874 of the 81st Congress, Act of Sept. 30, 1950, ch. 1124, Title I, section 1, 64 Stat. 1100 [20 U.S. C.A. § 236 (1969)], and is entitled to receive and does receive federal aid under Section 3 of that statute. The laws of California provide for withholding certain state aid from such school districts, the applicable Code sections being §§ 17602, 17602.5, 17603, 17603.5, 17605 of the California Education Code. The purpose of the action was to have those statutes held invalid, and to obtain a judgment forbidding the withholding of state aid under those sections and requiring that the amounts withheld be paid to the affected districts.

The plaintiffs asserted invalidity of the state statutes on two grounds, first, that the statutes deprived the Districts of the equal protection of the laws, in violation of section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and second, that the state statutes conflict…