In this chapter, the author reviews the legal trajectory of language rights in public schooling in the United States and how language has been intertwined with other policy issues in court cases aimed at expanding access and equity for minority students: desegregation and school finance. Most of these cases originated in the Southwestern United States where there were and continue to be critical masses of Latino students--largely Spanish speakers of Mexican descent--attending public schools. As an organizing frame for the chapter, the author expands Ruiz's (1984) framework for analyzing orientations in language policy. Her goal is to document and analyze the assumptions in legal arguments marshaled in these cases about how English language learners (ELLs) attending public schools should learn and be taught English and how students' home languages fit into those processes. She focuses on the legal opinions issued by federal and state courts because although courts do not create policy, they play an important role in the policymaking process.