San Antonio independent school district V. Rodriguez: dissecting an unprecedented supreme court decision and its implications

This thesis analyzes the Supreme Court Case, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (411 U.S. 1, 1972), in which the Court ruled against recognizing a constitutional right to education. The decision in San Antonio broke from precedent and analysis established in other 14th amendment and education litigation. I analyze this case and the judicial context within which it sits, to explore why the unprecedented decision in San Antonio occurred and the impact this decision has had on the cases that followed. Moreover, this thesis explores the implications of the decision in San Antonio and discusses the current efforts to overturn this precedent. I argue the importance of securing education as a constitutional right as a necessary means of ensuring the other constitutional rights of citizenship.