Give the NEA credit, with their newly discovered 10th Amendment enthusiasm they aggressively venue-shopped for a judge who would likely be friendly to their arguments that NCLB is an unfunded mandate. But even the Reagan-appointed judge they found in Michigan didn’t buy their case and tossed it out today on the merits.
Though it was generally agreed that the case was without merit (even among attorneys at the NEA) there are still two takeaways worth mentioning: First, this is still a quasi-victory for the NEA. They got something they wanted which was PR for their anti-NCLB attacks. It’s unlikely the dismissal will garner the same press attention the circus about bringing the original case did.
Second, the judge did agree that they did have standing to bring the case (though he rejected some of their specific arguments about why). That helps them going forward and also could mean more litigation from all sides.