Education/Instruccion v. Moore

Under Public Act 821 (Act 821), a regional planning agency and council of governments could be restructured to create a new regional council of government. Act 821 required at least 60 percent of the towns’ approval within the planning region. Each town was entitled to one representative on the council, who was the chief elected official in that town. Pursuant to Act 821, a new council of government was to be created called Capitol Region, which included Hartford. Hartford had 24 percent of the region’s population. Hartford had five representatives on the former council, and on the new council, it had four representatives. A state nonprofit corporation and three individual state citizens, two of whom resided in Hartford and one in Windsor, (plaintiffs) sued the Chairman of the Capitol Region Planning Agency (CRPA), the Chairman of the Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG), the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Regional Director of HUD, and 29 chief elected officials of 29 towns in the Capitol Region (defendants). The nonprofit and state citizens alleged that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, alleging that the new regional council would result in Hartford’s underrepresentation. The district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.