Defendants-Appellees' Preliminary Statement of Issues

    SiCe: 15255 

MILO SHEFF, ET AL. : SUPREME COURT 

V. 

WILLIAM A. O'NEILL, ET Al. : MAY 10, 1995 

DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES’ PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF ISSUES 
  

Pursuant to P.B. §4013(a) (1) (A), the defendants-appellees 

present for review the following preliminary counter statement of 

issues upon which the judgment may be affirmed: 

1. Whether the court correctly held that the defendants 

have taken no action, legislatively or administratively, which 

has caused the present racial and ethnic student composition of 

the Hartford public schools and, therefore, have not deprived the 

plaintiff students of equal protection nor caused them to be 

segregated or discriminated against on the basis of their races 

or national origins nor denied them due process with respect to 

their rights under Art. VIII, §1, Constitution of Connecticut, to 

a free public elementary or secondary education in violation of 

Art. I, $81, 20, or Art. I, $88, 10, Constitution of Connecticut? 

 



  

Also pursuant to P.B. §4013(a) (1) (A), the 

defendants-appellees present for review the following alternate 

grounds upon which the judgment may be affirmed: 

1. Whether Art. I, §81, 83, 10"and 20 and Art. VIII, §1, 

either separately or collectively, require no specific level of 

racial, ethnic or socioeconomic integration in the state’s public 

elementary and secondary schools nor a specific level of 

educational achievement by students in those schools? 

2. Whether, in the absence of any state action causing the 

plaintiffs’ school assignments or their educational programs to 

be based upon their races or national origins and when the 

General Assembly has enacted and kept in force legislation which 

assures for the plaintiffs substantially equal educational 

expenditures in relation to all other public elementary and 

secondary public school students in the state, the plaintiffs 

have not been statutorily denied “equal educational opportunity”, 

as that concept has been developed by this Court from the 

provisions of Art. I, 881, 20 and Art. VIII, $81, 4, Constitution 

of Connecticut? 

3. Whether the plaintiffs’ claim that they are denied a 

"minimum adequate education” or any particular educational 

 



  

program, as they alleged they are entitled to under Art. VIII, 

§1, Constitution of Connecticut, is nonjusticiable? 

4. Whether the court lacks jurisdiction over the 

defendants, all state officials, on the ground of sovereign 

immunity, when the plaintiffs have failed to allege any specific 

actions of the defendants which have deprived the plaintiffs of 

any state constitutional rights and have failed to allege any 

statute charged to the defendants’ administration, which statute 

violates the Constitution of Connecticut? 

5. Whether the court erred in denying the defendants’ 

motion to strike? 

6. Whether the court erred in denying the defendants’ 

motion for summary judgment? 

 



  

DEFENDANTS 

BY: RICHARD BLUMENTHAL 

ATTORNEY GENERAL 

pq 
DS La ve, Jr. 
Assistanyf Attorney General 
Juris 085230 
110 Sherman Street 

Hartford, Connecticut 06105 
Tel. 566-7173 : 

J AOA i, 
LA fl J 
Assistant Attorney Sn 
Juris 406172 

  

  

110 Sherman Street 

Hartford, Connecticut 06105 
Tel. 566-7173 

 



  

CERTIFICATION 
  

I hereby certify that a copy of the foregoing was hand 

delivered/mailed postage prepaid this | | day of May, 1995 to 

the following counsel of record: 

John Brittain, Esq. Wilfred Rodriguez, Esq. 
University of Connecticut Hispanic Advocacy Project 
School of Law Neighborhood Legal Services 
65 Elizabeth Street 1229 Albany Avenue 
Hartford, CT 06105 Hartford, CT 106112 

Philip Tegeler, Esq. Wesley W. Horton, Esq. 
Martha Stone, Esq. Moller, Horton & 

Connecticut Civil Fineberg, P.C. 
Liberties Union 90 Gillett Street 
32 Grand Street Hartford, CT 06105 

Hartford, CT . 06105 

Sandra Del Valle, Esq. Julius L. Chambers 
Ruben Franco, Esq. Marianne Engleman Lado, Esq. 
Jenny Rivera, Esq. Theodore M. Shaw 
Puerto Rican Legal Defense Dennis D. Parker 
and Education Fund NAACP Legal Defense Fund and 
99 Hudson Street Education Fund, Inc. 
14th Floor 99 Hudson Street 
New York, NY 10013 New York, NY 10013 

John A. Powell, Esq. 
Christopher H. Hansen, Esq. 
American Civil Liberties Union 
132 West 43rd Street 

New York, NY 10036 

py 

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Bernard F/{/ M¢Govern, Jr. 
Assistanf/Atitorney General 

  

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