The courts were doing brisk business on Thursday as an avalanche of orders came rolling out — many of them in cases involving the Department of Education. I am not going to lie, the fact that all of these semi-related rulings in multiple different jurisdictions (D.C., Maryland, New Hampshire) came out on the same day had me scratching my head and wondering at what game was afoot, until the light bulb finally went off: Today was the deadline by which state educational agencies needed to certify their compliance with the “Dear Colleague” letter issued by the ED in February.
I feel better now that I figured that out — not better about all the rulings, mind you; just better that the timing at least makes sense. Something else that doesn’t quite make sense, however, is the administration’s decision to dismiss its appeal in the State of California case…
