One week ago today, I was hitting 'reload' on the browser every 15 minutes to see if the federal judge had yet issued a ruling on the schools merger lawsuit. Was that really only seven days ago? Now that U.S. District Court Judge Samuel 'Hardy' Mays Jr. has issued an order untangling the various legal statutes lawyers were arguing about, negotiations for a settlement can proceed with a strong framework. It is possible that the officials up in the replay booth (aka, appeals court judges) could choose to give the legal calls more scrutiny, but the ruling on the field, in the courts as in football, is given great deference -- judges won't overrule unless they see obviously bungled judicial reasoning.
We ran a Sunday story really aimed at catching people up on just what Judge Mays determined, but the most significant action came late Friday, when all parties proposed various remedies for the currently all-suburban Shelby County Board of Education voting districts that Mays deemed to be "unconstitutional." Six different entities offered six different ways to go about adding Memphis representation, but the important thing to remember here is that, all last week, longtime Shelby County Schools board chairman David Picker used the word "negotiating" many, many times.
The proposals run the gamut, though we chose to focus on the way in which SCS and five SCS board members, acting as intervening plaintiffs, chose to carefully word their proposals. The board members came right out and told the judge they disagreed with him on whether Memphis deserves countywide representation for education during the transition and on what they feel is their right under state law to complete their terms (Mays, being a federal judge, can trounce state law). The board itself was less openly hostile, but still took pains to reserve the right to challenge the ruling. Tellingly, no other parties so much as hinted at wanting the right to disagree.
The easiest way to understand the proposals is, unfortunately, to see them once again through the Memphis/non-Memphis divide. Memphis entities (Shelby County Commission, Memphis City Council, City of Memphis) want an election as quickly as possible and ask the judge to allow the Commission to appoint, if necessary. Those with a suburban tilt want elections to wait until next August, with no appointments. The City Council lawyer, Allan Wade, appears to have waited Friday until other proposals came through, allowing him time to deconstruct the various flaws in them, and offered up a compromise -- elections next March (coinciding with the presidential primaries and county government primary) for a seven-member board AND allow the current SCS board to remain in place with very direct orders to go to the judge for permission to make any decisions that could at all affect consolidation. City of Memphis actually asks the judge to do nothing, claiming that the County Commission has full authority to act now that the judge has ruled an all-suburban county schools board is unconstitutional and has been since February.
Go to the story and check out the actual proposals for yourself (links to documents top left of story). Does anyone else notice the difference in language and even energy in the proposals? The parties, by the way, meet Friday for mediation sessions. Once a settlement is reached -- or not reached and the judge lays down a decree -- his 146-page 'order' becomes a ruling.
We ran a Sunday story really aimed at catching people up on just what Judge Mays determined, but the most significant action came late Friday, when all parties proposed various remedies for the currently all-suburban Shelby County Board of Education voting districts that Mays deemed to be "unconstitutional." Six different entities offered six different ways to go about adding Memphis representation, but the important thing to remember here is that, all last week, longtime Shelby County Schools board chairman David Picker used the word "negotiating" many, many times.
The proposals run the gamut, though we chose to focus on the way in which SCS and five SCS board members, acting as intervening plaintiffs, chose to carefully word their proposals. The board members came right out and told the judge they disagreed with him on whether Memphis deserves countywide representation for education during the transition and on what they feel is their right under state law to complete their terms (Mays, being a federal judge, can trounce state law). The board itself was less openly hostile, but still took pains to reserve the right to challenge the ruling. Tellingly, no other parties so much as hinted at wanting the right to disagree.
The easiest way to understand the proposals is, unfortunately, to see them once again through the Memphis/non-Memphis divide. Memphis entities (Shelby County Commission, Memphis City Council, City of Memphis) want an election as quickly as possible and ask the judge to allow the Commission to appoint, if necessary. Those with a suburban tilt want elections to wait until next August, with no appointments. The City Council lawyer, Allan Wade, appears to have waited Friday until other proposals came through, allowing him time to deconstruct the various flaws in them, and offered up a compromise -- elections next March (coinciding with the presidential primaries and county government primary) for a seven-member board AND allow the current SCS board to remain in place with very direct orders to go to the judge for permission to make any decisions that could at all affect consolidation. City of Memphis actually asks the judge to do nothing, claiming that the County Commission has full authority to act now that the judge has ruled an all-suburban county schools board is unconstitutional and has been since February.
Go to the story and check out the actual proposals for yourself (links to documents top left of story). Does anyone else notice the difference in language and even energy in the proposals? The parties, by the way, meet Friday for mediation sessions. Once a settlement is reached -- or not reached and the judge lays down a decree -- his 146-page 'order' becomes a ruling.
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