"In the high court's 1982 decision, Plyler v. Doe, justices said in a 5-4 decision the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment forbade public schools from prohibiting any children, regardless of citizenship status, [from obtaining] an education."
This is highly misleading. The Plyler decision was based on the particular facts of that case and it is virtually impossible for the critical facts in that case to be repeated again. Incredible as it sounds, Plyler was based on the fact that, at least according to Justice Brennan, Texas did not introduce any evidence that educating illegals was causing ecomomic harm to the state! Therefore, there is nothing in Plyler that would hold Prop. 187's ban of public education to illegals unconstitutional. When that key section of Prop. 187 was ruled unconstitutional by a single federal district court judge in 1995, only one article was published in the dominant media that explained why she was dead wrong and explained what was actuall held in Plyler. That article was published in the leading newspaper in Los Angeles for the legal community, the Los Angeles Daily Journal. I wrote the op-ed article. You can read it here: http://www.allanfavish.com/pfael187.htm
Regards,
Allan J. Favish
http://www.allanfavish.com