USCA4 Appeal: 23-1068      Doc: 52         Filed: 12/08/2023     Pg: 1 of 12




                                               PUBLISHED

                               UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                   FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT


                                                No. 23-1068


        ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION FAIRNESS,

                      Plaintiff – Appellant,

               v.

        MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION; DR. MONIFA B.
        MCKNIGHT,

                      Defendants – Appellees,

               and

        CASA, INC.; MONTGOMERY COUNTY BRANCH OF THE NAACP; ASIAN
        AMERICAN      YOUTH   LEADERSHIP   EMPOWERMENT      AND
        DEVELOPMENT; MONTGOMERY COUNTY PROGRESSIVE ASIAN
        AMERICAN NETWORK

                     Proposed Intervenors.


        On Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt.
        Paula Xinis, District Judge. (8:20-cv-02540-PX)


        Argued: September 20, 2023                                   Decided: December 8, 2023


        Before RICHARDSON and HEYTENS, Circuit Judges, and FLOYD, Senior Circuit
        Judge.


        Motion denied without prejudice by published opinion. Judge Heytens wrote the opinion,
        in which Judge Richardson and Judge Floyd joined.
USCA4 Appeal: 23-1068     Doc: 52       Filed: 12/08/2023    Pg: 2 of 12




        ARGUED: Michael Skocpol, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL FUND,
        INCORPORATED, Washington, D.C., for Intervenors. Christopher M. Kieser, PACIFIC
        LEGAL FOUNDATION, Sacramento, California, for Appellant. Nathaniel A.G. Zelinsky,
        HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Joshua P.
        Thompson, Erin E. Wilcox, Sacramento, California, Glenn E. Roper, PACIFIC LEGAL
        FOUNDATION, Highlands Ranch, Colorado, for Appellant. Jo-Ann Tamila Sagar,
        Washington, D.C., Steven F. Barley, HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP, Baltimore, Maryland,
        for Appellees. Leslie E. John, Elizabeth V. Wingfield, Kayla R. Martin, Philadelphia,
        Pennsylvania, Maraya N. Pratt, BALLARD SPAHR LLP, Baltimore, Maryland; Niyati
        Shah, Shalaka Phadnis, ASIAN AMERICANS ADVANCING JUSTICE-AAJC,
        Washington, D.C.; Michaele N. Turnage Young, Jin Hee Lee, Washington, D.C., Allison
        Scharfstein, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC., New York,
        New York; Francisca D. Fajana, LATINOJUSTICE PRLDEF, New York, New York, for
        Intervenors.




                                                 2
USCA4 Appeal: 23-1068          Doc: 52       Filed: 12/08/2023       Pg: 3 of 12




        TOBY HEYTENS, Circuit Judge:

               A coalition of civil rights organizations asks to intervene in an appeal from a district

        court judgment granting full relief to the side the organizations seek to join. We deny the

        motion without prejudice.

                                                      I.

               This litigation stems from a school district’s decision to change its process for

        selecting students for four magnet schools. In 2020, plaintiff Association for Education

        Fairness sued the Montgomery County Board of Education and its superintendent

        (collectively,   the    Board),   claiming   the   Board’s    then-new     admissions   policy

        unconstitutionally discriminated against Asian American students. The Board filed two

        motions to dismiss, which defended the policy on the merits and argued the case was moot

        because the Board had changed its admissions process again since the Association filed

        suit. The district court denied those motions, and the Association filed an amended

        complaint.

               Soon after, “a multi-racial coalition of five organizations that serve thousands of

        Asian American, Black, and Latino students and families across Montgomery County”