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2023 Supreme(US)(ca7) 392

COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
St. Augustine School – Appellant
Versus
Jill Underly – Respondent



United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ Nos. 22-2786 & 22-2846 ST. AUGUSTINE SCHOOL, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. JILL UNDERLY, et al., Defendants-Appellees/Cross-Appellants. ____________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. No. 2:16-cv-00575 — Lynn Adelman, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED MARCH 31, 2023 — DECIDED AUGUST 14, 2023 ____________________

Before EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE, and WOOD, Circuit Judges. WOOD, Circuit Judge. This long-running case arose in 2015, when Amy and Joseph Forro, whose three children attended St. Augustine School, a self-identified Catholic school in Hart- ford, Wisconsin, requested transportation benefits from the State of Wisconsin. Wisconsin provides such benefits for par- ents who send their children to private sectarian schools. See Wis. Stat. § 121.54. This time, however, the responsible school district and the state superintendent of public instruction (the 2 Nos. 22-2786 & 22-2846 Superintendent) denied the parents’ request because the state was already providing transportation benefits to St. Gabriel, another Catholic school operating in the same area. In so do- ing, the state authorities were attempting to follow a Wiscon- sin law that stipulates that only one school from a single or- ganizational entity in each “attendance area” may qualify for benefits. See Wis. Stat. § 121.51. But the links between St. Au- gustine and St. Gabriel were only skin-deep. Although they both proclaim an affiliation with Catholicism, the two schools are not affiliated with one another in other significant ways. This fact led St. Augustine and the Forros to sue for benefits they believe were wrongfully withheld. (Unless the context requires otherwise, we refer to the plaintiffs collectively as the Forros.) Several years of litigation ensued, including a trip up and back from the U.S. Supreme Court, St. Augustine School v. Tay- lor, 141 S. Ct. 186 (2020) (mem.), two published opinions from this court, St. Augustine School v. Evers, 906 F.3d 591 (7th Cir. 2018) (St. Augustine I), and St. Augustine School v. Underly, 21 F.4th 446 (7th Cir. 2021) (St. Augustine IV), cert. denied, 142 S. Ct. 2804 (2022) (mem.), one nonprecedential disposition from this court, St. Augustine School v. Taylor, No. 17-2333, 2021 WL 2774246 (7th Cir. Feb. 16, 2021) (St. Augustine II), and a pub- lished opinion from the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, St. Au- gustine School v. Taylor, 2021 WI 70 (St. Augustine III). After all that, the Forros were vindicated. In St. Augustine IV, with the benefit of the state supreme court’s authoritative interpreta- tion of the relevant state law in St. Augustine III, we concluded that the Superintendent’s denial of transportation benefits vi- olated Wisconsin law, because it rested on an improper meth- odology for determining affiliation between two schools of similar faith. The case is now back before us again. All that is Nos. 22-2786 & 22-2846 3 left to decide is whether the district court erred in the reme- dies it imposed based on this confirmed state-law violation. Seeing no reversible error, we affirm. I We are concerned with the State of Wisconsin’s statutory scheme for providing transportation benefits to students who attend private schools. See Wis. Stat. §§ 121.51, 121.54. This is a topic that both we and the Supreme Court of Wisconsin have explored carefully, as the history we have just reviewed illus- trates. We provide further details here. A Wisconsin law requires local school districts to provide transportation

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