High-Court Nominee's Clerkship Combed for Hints on K-12

Education Week: Merrick B. Garland, now a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, was in the first few weeks of his prestigious year as a law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan Jr. in August 1978 when he found himself immersed—in a humble way—in a fast-developing drama involving a major education issue of that era: school desegregation.

The 1978-79 term, during which Garland served, would end up with several major rulings in education, not only in desegregation, but in the areas of the application of federal labor law to private religious schools, free-speech rights for public school teachers, and state laws barring permanent teacher certification for non-U.S. citizens.

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