An apparent mistake by the lead attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education might keep a lawsuit over state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters’ Bible-teaching mandate in state court.
A federal judge has given the agency and its general counsel, Michael Beason, until Aug. 26 to explain why the case shouldn’t be remanded back to state court because of the error.
On June 27, the day Walters issued his mandate that the Bible be incorporated into classroom teaching in all Oklahoma classrooms, Joseph Price of Locust Grove filed a lawsuit in Mayes County District Court, saying he “is concerned that this policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state, infringes on the religious freedom of students and parents, and imposes religious beliefs on public school students.”
In the lawsuit, Price said the mandate violates both the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Section 5 of the Oklahoma Constitution . That part of the state Constitution prohibits the use of public money or property for the benefit of any religious or sectarian institution.
Within days, Beason petitioned for the case to move to federal court, a tactic both Beason and his predecessor as state Education Department general counsel, Bryan Cleveland, have used in at least four lawsuits filed against Walters. Beason said in his request that Price’s claim in his state lawsuit “presents a federal question.”
In his brief, Beason misidentified the case number of Price’s state-court filing, instead using the case number of another lawsuit against Walters, one originally filed in Oklahoma County District Court by former state Education Department employee Janessa Bointy. Walters’ attorneys successfully petitioned for that case to be moved into federal court.
Beason filed his petition in the federal court’s Western District of Oklahoma, based in Oklahoma City. U.S. District Judge David Russell took note of that and said in an order, dated Thursday, that under “the statute governing the removal of state civil actions to the court, a case must be removed ‘to the district court of the United States for the district and division embracing the place where such action is pending.’”
Mayes County, Russell said, is not in the judicial system's Western District, but instead is in the Northern District of Oklahoma. That federal court district is based in Tulsa.
Russell gave Beason and the state agency until Aug. 26 “to show cause … as to why this Court should not remand the case to state court for noncompliance” with the law, “given that removal statues are to be strictly construed.”
For his part, Price has made filings in both Mayes County District Court and in federal court, asking that the case remain in state court. Price said the case concerns “state constitutional violations” and “local school district autonomy.”
“The state court is fully competent to adjudicate all relevant legal issues, including any federal constitutional claims that may arise incidentally,” Price wrote in a filing.
Rulings in three other lawsuits against Ryan Walters move cases forward in federal court
Filings last week in three other lawsuits against Walters, all wrongful-termination claims in federal court, mean those cases will move forward.
In one case, the deputy general counsel at the state Education Department, Shannon Smith, attempted to file a counterclaim on Thursday against Bointy, who sued Walters and the state agency in Oklahoma County District Court in September 2023. Walters asked for the case to be moved to the federal system after Oklahoma County District Court Judge Sheila Stinson didn’t dismiss the lawsuit.
Walters then asked U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot to dismiss the case, but Friot allowed a portion of Bointy’s lawsuit to stand. The trial is set to begin April 8.
In her filing Thursday, Smith asked for a judgment against Bointy in excess of $75,000, plus punitive and exemplary damages and attorney’s fees. Smith claimed false statements by Bointy and Bointy’s attorney, Leah Roper, “were intended to and have caused harm to the reputation of the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Superintendent Ryan Walters resulting in consequential damages subjecting the agency and Superintendent Walters to public hatred, contempt, ridicule or disgrace resulting in financial loss and damage to Defendants’ reputation, and/or emotional injury.”
Smith did not specify what the harm was or any financial loss by the agency or Walters.
Roper immediately protested that the counterclaim was filed well past the deadline previously established in the case to do so. Friot agreed, striking Smith’s attempt.
Rulings came down on Aug. 12 in the two other wrongful-termination lawsuits , filed by former state Education Department employees Cheryl McGee and Matthew Colwell against Walters and his Texas-based chief adviser, Matt Langston. The orders, both issued by U.S. District Judge Charles Goodwin, dismissed the lawsuits against Walters and Langston in their official, professional capacities, but allowed them to continue against the two men in their personal capacities.
That means that should either McGee or Colwell, or both, prevail in their lawsuits, Walters and Langston would be personally liable for any judgment against them.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Error by Education Department attorney may keep lawsuit over Bible mandate in state court
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