Opinion ID: 3051961
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: School Uniform Policies Further Important

Text: Government Interests The District claims its uniform policies further three important state interests: (1) “increasing student achievement”; (2) “promoting safety”; and (3) “enhancing a positive school environment.”37 The District supports its claim with affidavits from school personnel confirming that the school uniform policies were implemented with these purposes in mind and that the policies have, in fact, been effective in advancing these goals. [15] Plaintiffs do not contend that the District’s stated interests are unimportant or insignificant. Instead, they argue that, even though these interests may be laudable, the District’s real justification for its uniform policies was its goal of “visible conformity”—an interest Plaintiffs argue is not important or substantial. But this is not how the intermediate scrutiny test works. Indeed, a court’s job in evaluating a policy under this test’s first step is to determine whether the government’s stated goals qualify as important or substantial. See Turner, 512 U.S. at 664 (specifically, the court must determine whether the government’s evidence “demonstrate[s] that the recited harms are real, not merely conjectural and that the regulation will in fact alleviate these harms in a direct and material way”). Whether those stated goals are mere pretexts for 37 The stated purpose of the dress code was not simply to “promote ‘school spirit.’ ” The dissent relies on the affidavit of Donald Jacobs for this assertion, but such reliance is not appropriate on summary judgment, and, in any event, the affidavit certainly does not constitute the “stated purpose” of the dress code. The actual purpose of the dress code—student achievement, safety, positive school environment—is stated explicitly in the regulation and reflects important government interests. JACOBS v. CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DIST. 5205 a more insidious government purpose is taken up in the second and third steps of the analysis. See id.; O’Brien, 391 U.S. at 377-80. [16] Here, the government’s stated goals unquestionably qualify as “important.” See Canady, 240 F.3d at 443-44 (finding comparable goals sufficiently important to withstand intermediate scrutiny); Blau v. Fort Thomas Public Sch. Dist., 401 F.3d 381, 391-92 (6th Cir. 2005) (“[B]ridging socioeconomic gaps between families within the school district, focusing attention on learning, increasing school unity and pride, enhancing school safety, promoting good behavior, reducing discipline problems, improving test scores, improving children’s self-respect and self-esteem, helping to eliminate stereotypes and producing a cost savings for families . . . are all important governmental interests [served by a school uniform policy].”). Indeed, it is hard to think of a government interest more important than the interest in fostering conducive learning environments for our nation’s children. [17] Additionally, not only do affidavits from District administrators indicate that the school uniform policies have been effective in achieving the Regulation’s three goals— which itself is evidence that the contemplated “harms are real” and that the policies do “in fact alleviate these harms in a direct and material way,” Turner, 512 U.S. at 664—the Department of Education has also acknowledged the efficacy of school uniforms in advancing such state interests. See U.S. Dep’t of Ed. Manual on Sch. Uniforms (1996), available at http://www.ed.gov/updates/uniforms.html.38 In the absence of 38 This manual lists as the potential benefits of school uniform policies: • Decreasing violence and theft—even life-threatening situations—among students over designer clothing or expensive sneakers; • Helping prevent gang members from wearing gang colors and insignia at school; 5206 JACOBS v. CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DIST. any evidence from Plaintiffs that the uniform policies fail to advance the important government interests of increasing student achievement, enhancing safety, and creating a positive school environment, we conclude that the first prong of the intermediate scrutiny test is satisfied.