Everyone knows that literacy is important, but is it a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution?

That’s the question being raised in a lawsuit filed against the State of Michigan on behalf of Detroit schoolchildren who struggle in some of the state’s worst-performing schools. Advocates insist that it is, saying that people who can’t read can’t exercise other constitutional rights such as voting, accessing the courts and serving in the military.

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“Use whatever word you want; landmark, path-breaking,” said William Koski, an Upper Peninsula native who now runs the Youth and Education Law Project at Stanford Law School. “They are pushing the boundaries.”

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“It’s novel in the sense that it does take advantage of that language that has not been fully litigated,” Koski said. “Factually, if they can prove what they’ve alleged, they certainly have a case.”

Koski declined to predict a likelihood of success but said it will depend on the court’s willingness to revisit cases decided more than 40 years ago.

“We just don’t know,” he said.