Opinion ID: 1885183
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: August 13, 1991, Order Certified as Final on October 18, 1991

Text: Section 256, as amended by Amendment 111, expressly states that it is the policy of the State to promote education, but that there is no right to an education at public expense. [32] The circuit court ruled that Amendment 111 is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The stated reason for its ruling was that other parts of Amendment 111, adopted in 1956, were designed to permit the State to maintain a segregated public-school system in spite of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954). However, those parts of Amendment 111, which allowed the Legislature to authorize parents or guardians of children to elect to send the children to schools comprised of members of their own race, were never implemented by the Legislature; therefore, no injury ever occurred because of that language. The August 13, 1991, order, although certified as final pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala.R.Civ.P., was never appealed.