St. Augustine School v. Underly

Upon remand, Dist. Ct. did not err in entering declaratory judgment in favor of plaintiffs-parents and Catholic school in their action alleging that defendants-school district and school official violated their First Amendment rights when defendants denied parents’ request for transportation benefits under Wisconsin statute, where defendants based denial on said statute allowing benefits for students in only one type of organization within designated attendance area, and where students in different Catholic school had already been receiving said benefits. Ct. of Appeals eventually found, with input from Wisconsin Supreme Court, that defendants’ denial of benefits violated state law and remanded case back to Dist. Ct. to fashion remedy. Plaintiffs, though, mistakenly took position that Dist. Ct. could not fashion remedy under state law, because it had previously released state law claims back to state court when it had denied any federal remedy, and that Dist. Ct. still needed to rule on their constitutional federal claims. Dist. Ct. could properly find that plaintiffs had waived any financial recovery (other than attorney’s fees) under state law and entered declaratory judgment reflecting that defendants had violated state law. Moreover, resolution of plaintiffs’ federal constitutional claims was unnecessary, where plaintiffs had received adequate state law remedy. As such, plaintiffs were entitled to only declaratory judgment based on state law and attorney’s fees based on said declaratory judgment.