On Saturday Night Live, a running joke on the Weekend Update was that Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still dead.  The joke started in 1975.  It’s still as potent for me today as it was then.  And he’s still dead.

Among the many things that capture the essence of the joke are our beloved courts.  Ask Avery Doninger, the Burlington, Connecticut high school student who was denied her run for school secretary because she called administration officials a bad name on a website when they canceled her “Jamfest”. 

Her suit in federal court resulted in a non-responsive response, with the Judge punting.  Who was he to question school officials, he asked?  The judge, Avery answered.  So when the judge deferred, Avery appealed.

But in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.  We now have come to the end of another school year.  As Andy Thibault at Cool Justice Report informs, Avery is still waiting. 

Justice delayed is justice denied.  It’s a fine platitude, one of the better ones if you ask me.  It’s particularly appropriate when dealing with a high school kid.  High school may seem like it last forever when you’re a teeny bopper, but the rest of us know it flies by very quickly.  We also know that once gone, it’s gone.  For Avery, it’s pretty much gone.  You see, Avery is now a senior in high school.  Unlike Franco, she won’t be a senior next year.

Now, the focus shifts a bit.  A question on the mind of the Doningers is just how much the Lewis S. Mills High School’s intransigence and dislike of minor vulgarities cost the taxpayers.  They foiled the district lawyer’s bills on August 1, 2007.  They received redacted copies.  For those who are unfamiliar with “redacted”, it means that they blacked out all the good stuff so the reader can’t see it.  It’s a lawyer word for hiding the parts you really want to see.

They appealed the foil production, and received an order to produce unredated bills.  It seems that the lawyer was hiding the cost associated with each of her screw-ups, requiring her to undo, redo and generally clean up after herself.  But don’t fret, at least she got paid for all of it, no matter that it was expense of her own creation.  It wouldn’t occur to the school board to question why they are paying their lawyer for screwing up, then again for fixing the screw up, then again for finally doing something properly.  After all, it’s not like the money comes out of their pockets, right?  Andy calls this the “welfare system for board of education lawyers.”

As time marched forward, it must have become apparent to the Doningers that the Circuit Court’s decision was increasingly irrelevant.  No matter what the result, Avery’s time in high school was coming to an end.  Her view was toward her future, college, senatorial campaigns, reconstituting SDS perhaps.  She couldn’t be restored to her rightful place in the high school hierarchy no matter what. 

But this won’t be a total waste.  After all, the lawyers for the school district, even if they are forced to turn over unredacted copies of their bills, still get to keep the money.  Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.  Nothing has changed for Avery Doninger or the taxpayers of Burlington school district.