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Glimpses of other cases

The seven legal events mentioned below, like the two

sketched previously, are elaborated under More on the 

sample cases.  Most comments that I quote are

supported by Photocopies.  Others can be checked

against court records.

State regulation of parental choice

In Kentucky Board v. Rudasill, 589 SW 2d 877 (1979), one of the state’s best attorneys (a former governor) defended three volumes of regulations for private schools, but both the trial court and Kentucky Supreme Court took the proof-of-the-pudding position I advocated in testimony—test students to see if they are learning, because regulation cannot ensure it and sometimes prevents it. Ball mentions this case (see his reference to “Frankfort”) in his “turned into victories” letter.

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In Bangor Baptist Church v. State of Me. Dept. of Educ., 576 F. Supp. 1299 (1983), state officials, apparently alarmed by my testimony in previous cases, hired three scholars to scrutinize it for inconsistencies and errors to use to discredit me. The state attorney then tried for hours to “impeach” me on the stand, said the Bangor Daily News.  The effort failed.  We won the case.  Ball mentions it in his above-mentioned letter. In his book titled Mere Creatures of the State? he says the three scholars “expounded educational theory exquisitely,” but “Erickson, in short order, turned the case . . . to the world of reality.” Ball then engaged me in his final three cases in this area of law.

Home-schooling

Several attorneys who assisted Ball in various cases soon involved me in cases of their own. Having witnessed Bangor Baptist as a member of Ball’s legal team, for example, Samuel W. Lanham, Jr., of Cuddy & Lanham in Bangor, enlisted me in Blount v. State of Maine, Maine Superior Court in Augusta, Docket No. CV-86-474 (1986).  At the conclusion of the Blount case, on the right of parents to educate children at home without government approval, Lanham wrote:

“I am deeply grateful to you for your assistance in this case, and your testimony was, in your usual fashion, excellent!  . . . I was particularly impressed by the colloquy which took place between you and Judge Brody.  His discussion with you was one of the few times during the entire week when he engaged himself with any witness.”  Later Lanham said the Blount case had “the best expert testimony the nation had to offer.”

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I have assisted in nine cases on home-schooling.  In the fourth home-schooling case in which I assisted the Home School Legal Defense Association (Vaughn v. Jackson, Superior Court of California for the County of Orange, in San Bernardino, Docket No. AD-61606, 1997), I testified against Reggie Jackson, the famous athlete. In a warm conversation in the hallway, Jackson and I quoted Robert Frost to each other, but inside the courtroom I found conditions exasperating.  Michael P. Farris, HSLDA President, wrote, however,

“I thought you did a great job, …under very trying circumstances.”

Tax funds for private schools or their patrons

In the convoluted Illinois case of Klinger v. Howlett, 305 NE 2d 129 (1973), on indirect tax support of private schools, the trial judge discussed my testimony in over 300 words, starting with:

“The most impressive evidence was the testimony of Dr. Donald Erickson.“

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In a letter of 3/15/78, late U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan commented on my appearance before his (and Senator Bob Packwood’s) senate subcommittee on tax credits: “Your testimony was splendid—lucid, informative and greatly helpful to the Committee and I should like to extend my warm personal thanks.” A U.S. Senate hearing room is not a courtroom (though it comes close), and Moynihan was not an attorney, but commendations from him, a man not easy to please, are worth mentioning.

Public school uniforms

Many cases in which I am expert witness are settled out of court.  In 1994 and 1995, I helped the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers defend student uniforms in the public schools of Long Beach, CA.  I did extensive observations and interviews, talked with attorneys about arguments in favor of uniforms, and submitted the usual sworn statement.   Then the case was settled (rather unhappily) out of court, partly because of the intervention of Janet Reno (then US Attorney General) and the California legislature.   Because of referrals by the school system and its attorneys, I participated in a similar case in Phoenix and received inquiries from many other parts of the U. S.

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Copyright © 2004 Donald Erickson

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