Just four months after its 4-3 ruling to uphold a 2022 law that limited the power of Jefferson County Public Schools’ elected board, the Kentucky Supreme Court has now ordered a rehearing of the case.
In another 4-3 decision issued Thursday, Kentucky’s high court granted a petition from the Jefferson County Board of Education.
The six justices remaining from the previous ruling in December held their positions, with the three who voted to uphold the law dissenting from a rehearing, and the three who voted to strike down parts of the law concurring with the order for a rehearing.
The deciding factor in the court’s shift was Justice Pamela Goodwine, who was elected last November to replace retiring Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter. Goodwine sided with the majority to grant the petition for a rehearing, whereas VanMeter concurred with the majority in the December ruling to uphold the law.
Rulings from the Jefferson Circuit Court in 2022 and Kentucky Court of Appeals in 2023 struck down parts of Senate Bill 1 because they singled out JCPS. They ruled that this amounted to “special legislation” targeting one district, which is prohibited under the constitution.
The majority opinion of Justice Shea Nickell in December 2024 rejected that argument, stating that while the law had provisions which only applied to “a county school district with a consolidated local government” — JCPS being the only one to meet that definition in Kentucky — other school districts could fit that category in the future.
Senate Bill 1 was a broad education bill, but had several provisions that were specific to JCPS and challenged in the board’s lawsuit. These included limiting its elected board to one meeting every four weeks and shifting certain powers from the board to the superintendent. The law increased the vote threshold for the board to overrule any superintendent’s action and took away the board’s ability to limit superintendent purchases that are below $250,000.
The Supreme Court’s two-page order issued Thursday set a schedule for the parties’ briefings over the next two months and a hearing for oral arguments in August, specifying that they will be limited to the following:
- Does the statute at issue in this case apply to an open or a closed class as that concept was articulated in this Court’s December 19, 2024 Opinion?
- Did the trial court apply the correct standard for resolution of a claim that a statute violates Sections 59 and 60 of the Kentucky Constitution?
Justices Goodwine, Michelle Keller, Kelly Thompson and Angela Bisig concurred with the majority opinion for a rehearing. Nickell, Chief Justice Debra Lambert and Justice Robert Conley dissented, “as the issues noted were presented to the Court in the Brief for the Commonwealth thus rehearing under RAP 38(B) is inappropriate.”
The high court rarely grants petitions for rehearings on cases it has already decided.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is defending the upholding of the law in the case, having previously argued against a rehearing. In a statement, Coleman said he is “stunned by the Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling to undo its own decision.”
“We will redouble our efforts to defend the interests of Kentucky students and uphold the rule of law,” Coleman said.
Jefferson County Board of Education Chairman Corrie Shull said in a statement that the board members “appreciate the Supreme Court's willingness to take another look at this case."
When the Supreme Court upheld the challenged provisions of SB 1 last year, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers called the ruling “a shot across the bow to Kentucky’s largest school district, one which continues to fail its students, particularly low-income and minority students.”
Stivers did not respond to a request for comment, but Republican House Speaker David Osborne defended the law and criticized the move to rehear the case in a statement to Kentucky Public Radio.
“The Court’s decision to rehear a case they ruled on just four months ago is troubling at the very least because the facts and arguments of the case remain the same — only the membership of the Court has changed,” Osborne said. “Unfortunately, judicial outcomes seem increasingly driven by partisan politics. Kentuckians would be better served to keep politics out of the court, and the court out of politics."
Goodwine was elected in November with the help of two independent political action committees that collectively spent nearly $1 million on advertisements supporting her. One of those groups received $200,000 in contributions from the PAC of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, a labor union that has been heavily involved and influential in JCPS school board elections for decades.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging SB 1 is the Jefferson County Board of Education, which is a separate entity from the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
The PACs spending in support of Goodwine also received $100,000 from the Kentucky Education Association — the statewide teachers union — and $510,000 from two groups affiliated with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. The governor vetoed SB 1 when it was passed in 2022, before the GOP supermajority of the Kentucky General Assembly voted to override his veto.
Asked by Kentucky Public Radio in December if the spending by Beshear’s committees may necessitate her to recuse from future Supreme Court cases where the governor is a party, Goodwine said she would make such decisions on a case-by-case basis.
“I think each case must be examined on the facts of each case, and I don't think that a specific monetary amount that was contributed by any party mandates recusal,” Goodwine said. “So I don't think it mandates automatic recusal, but I'm not going to say I'll never recuse from a case involving the governor.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
