In July 2024, Parents Defending Education (PDE) asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to hear its lawsuit against New York’s Croton-Harmon Union Free School District from the start. This request is called a petition for initial hearing “en banc.” PDE lost in the lower court because of two Second Circuit precedents that only the full court can overrule.
The petition explained that “associational standing,” which lets groups sue on behalf of their members, helps both the people represented and the courts. Without groups like PDE, the constitutional rights of many people, especially those who are unpopular or lack resources, “could not be effectively vindicated.” But two Second Circuit decisions stand in the way:
- Do No Harm v. Pfizer (2024) says a group loses standing if it asks for a preliminary injunction without revealing its members’ real names. PDE argued this splits with at least three other federal appeals courts, misreads Supreme Court cases, and conflicts with major cases like SFFA v. Harvard, where members stayed anonymous.
- Aguayo v. Richardson (1973) says groups can never bring civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. §1983 on behalf of their members. PDE argued that the Second Circuit had softened this rule by letting groups sue over their own harms, such as having to spend resources fighting a policy. But the Supreme Court recently cut back that theory in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (2024), so the time has come to overrule Aguayo.
PDE asked the full court to decide whether a group keeps its standing when it uses pseudonyms for its members, and whether a group can bring §1983 claims on their behalf.
Read the full petition below:
