Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 21 (2002)

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Cite as: 536 U. S. 273 (2002)

Stevens, J., dissenting

Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Ginsburg joins, dissenting.

The Court's ratio decidendi in this case has a "now you see it, now you don't" character. At times, the Court seems to hold that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or Act), 20 U. S. C. § 1232g, simply does not create any federal rights, thereby disposing of the case with a negative answer to the question "whether Congress intended to create a federal right," ante, at 283. This interpretation would explain the Court's studious avoidance of the rights-creating language in the title and the text of the Act. Alternatively, its opinion may be read as accepting the proposition that FERPA does indeed create both parental rights of access to student records and student rights of privacy in such records, but that those federal rights are of a lesser value because Congress did not intend them to be enforceable by their owners. See, e. g., ante, at 290 (requiring of respondent "no less and no more" than what is required of plaintiffs attempting to prove that a statute creates an implied right of action). I shall first explain why the statute does, indeed, create federal rights, and then explain why the Court's novel attempt to craft a new category of second-class statutory rights is misguided.

I

Title 20 U. S. C. § 1232g, which embodies FERPA in its entirety, includes 10 subsections, which create rights for both students and their parents, and describe the procedures for enforcing and protecting those rights. Subsection (a)(1)(A) accords parents "the right to inspect and review the education records of their children." 1 Subsection (a)(1)(D) pro-1 The following portions of 20 U. S. C. §§ 1232g(a)(1)(A) and (B) identify the parents' right. After stating that no funds shall be made available to an institution that has a policy of denying parents "the right to inspect and review the education records of their children," subsection (a)(1)(A) clarifies that if an education record pertains to more than one student, "the parents of one of such students shall have the right to inspect and

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