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”

moved to intervene as defendants. Mot. to Intervene 3, D. Ct. ECF 69. Viewing “the crux

of ” the dispute