Another 16% received an acceptable choice. And the fact that the state and local governments had relied on statements in this Courts opinions was irrelevant to the Brown Court. 551 U.S. 701. Our Nation from the inception has sought to preserve and expand the promise of liberty and equality on which it was founded. In this Courts paradigmatic segregation cases, there was a local ordinance, state statute, or state constitutional provision requiring racial separation. 137 F.Supp. See id., at 494 (The impact [of segregation] is greater when it has the sanction of the law). Because the referendum would have prohibited the adoption of a school-integration plan that involved mandatory busing, and because it would have imposed a special burden on school integration plans (plans that sought to integrate previously segregated schools), the Court found it unconstitutional. 05908. at 315 (opinion of Powell, J. Justia makes no guarantees or warranties that the annotations are accurate or reflect the current state of law, and no annotation is intended to be, nor should it be construed as, legal advice. In both cities, the school boards adopted plans designed to achieve integration by bringing about more racially diverse schools. 2 Memorandum of Agreement between Seattle School District No. in No. See also Parents Involved VII, 426 F.3d, at 1222 (Bea, J., dissenting) (The way to end racial discrimination is to stop discriminating by race). And my view was the rallying cry for the lawyers who litigated Brown. As a result of this Courts insistence on strict scrutiny of that policy, but see id., at 538547, inmates in the California prisons were killed. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. Compton, California, on the other hand, became over 99 percent black in the 1980s, while Buffalo, New York had a virtual 5050 split between white and minority students prior to its 1977 plan. Ante, at 6; ante, at 1516 (opinion of the Court). These plans are unconstitutional. 2 1996 Memorandum 47, and Attachment 2; Hampton I, supra, at 768. We put the burden on state actors to demonstrate that their race-based policies are justified. Johnson, 543 U. S., at 506, n.1. You're all set! [4], The Parents Involved decision was a "split decision." 1, 458 U. S. 457, is directly on point. Parents Involved in Community Schools, a non-profit organization, argues that the Districts policy amounts to unconstitutional racial balancing under the Supreme Courts 2003 decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003). Is each to be the subject of litigation in the District Courts?); Brief for Kansas on Reargument in Brown v. Board of Education, O.T. 1953, No. in Briggs v. Elliott, O.T. 1953, No. The precedent of Grutter v. Bollinger should allow these plans to stand because they are serving educational, democratic, and remedial purposes. Compare Brief for Appellees in Davis v. County School Board, O.T. 1952, No. This litigation was commenced in July 2000, and the record in the District Court was closed before assignments for the 20012002 school year were made. Space was available at Bloom, and intercluster transfers are allowed, but Joshuas transfer was nonetheless denied because, in the words of Jefferson County, [t]he transfer would have an adverse effect on desegregation compliance of Young. See Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 306, 351354 (2003) (Thomas, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). To show that the school assignment plans here meet the requirements of the Constitution, I have written at exceptional length. See App. Compare Eisenberg, 197 F.3d, at 133, with Comfort, 418 F.3d, at 13. Seattle School District No. And [p]referring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. Bakke, 438 U. S., at 307 (opinion of Powell, J.). As Justice Marshall said, unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together. Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U. S. 717, 783 (1974) (dissenting opinion). Similarly, the segregationists made repeated appeals to societal practice and expectation. at 12. The fact that state and local governments had been discriminating on the basis of race for a long time was irrelevant to the Brown Court. ; Grutter, supra, at 329330; Freeman, 503 U. S., at 494. in No. Any use of race to distinguish one person from another threatens to stigmatize individuals and incite hostility. And the combination of the three unsubstantiated elements does not produce an interest any more compelling than that represented by each element independently. [Footnote 18]. The Chief Justice twice cites my dissent in Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U. S. 448 (1980). I add that one cannot find a relevant distinction in the fact that these school districts did not examine the merits of applications individual[ly]. See ante, at 1315. Id., at 493494. In many such instances, the contentious force of legal challenges to these classifications, meritorious or not, would displace earlier calm. App. 1, pp. While it acknowledges that racial classifications are used to make certain assignment decisions, it fails to make clear, for example, who makes the decisions; what if any oversight is employed; the precise circumstances in which an assignment decision will or will not be made on the basis of race; or how it is determined which of two similarly situated children will be subjected to a given race-based decision. A federal District Court dismissed the suit, upholding the tiebreaker. . For the dissent, in contrast, individualized scrutiny is simply beside the point. Post, at 55. 1" and "Meredith" v. "Jefferson County Board of Education" cases, therefore, significantly . The dissent accuses me of feel[ing] confident that, to end invidious discrimination, one must end all governmental use of race-conscious criteria and chastises me for not deferring to democratically elected majorities. Between 1968 and 1980, the number of black children attending a school where minority children constituted more than half of the school fell from 77% to 63% in the Nation (from 81% to 57% in the South) but then reversed direction by the year 2000, rising from 63% to 72% in the Nation (from 57% to 69% in the South). See also Grutter, supra, at 326 ([G]overnmental action based on racea group classification long recognized as in most circumstances irrelevant and therefore prohibitedshould be subjected to detailed judicial inquiry (internal quotation marks and emphasis omitted)). The complaint charged that the school board had brought about this segregated system in part by mak[ing] and enforc[ing] certain rules and regulations, in part by drawing . of Ed. Five Supreme Court justices rejected voluntary desegregation plans in Seattle and . 254, 256, 261 (1956) (40 of Kentuckys 180 school districts began desegre- Although black students made up about 3% of the total Seattle population in the mid-1950s, nearly all black children attended schools where a majority of the population was minority. First, there is a historical and remedial element: an interest in setting right the consequences of prior conditions of segregation. Code Ann. . Brief for Respondent at 2434. in No. Light, New Evidence on School Desegregation v (1987) (hereinafter Welch) (prepared for the Commission on Civil Rights) (reviewing a sample of 125 school districts, constituting 20% of national public school enrollment, that had experimented with nearly 300 different plans over 18 years). Those schools do not select their own students, and education in the elementary and secondary environment generally does not involve the free interchange of ideas thought to be an integral part of higher education. Similarly, between 1968 and 1980, the number of black children attending schools that were more than 90% minority fell from 64% to 33% in the Nation (from 78% to 23% in the South), but that too reversed direction, rising by the year 2000 from 33% to 37% in the Nation (from 23% to 31% in the South). 2005), online at http://www.seattleschools.org/area/facilties&nbhyph;plan/Choice/05&nbhyph; 2. Moreover, the school districts did not consider other options that might have been more narrowly tailored. A racial imbalance determination requires the district to submit a plan to correct the racial imbalance, which plan may include mandatory pupil reassignment. 10226e5(a) and (c)(4). While the government is not required to take race into account to address problems arising from racial discrimination, it is constitutionally permitted to do so. The diversity interest was not focused on race alone but encompassed all factors that may contribute to student body diversity. Id., at 337. I use the words may need here deliberately. Nor can I explain my disagreement with the Courts holding and the pluralitys opinion, without offering a detailed account of the arguments they propound and the consequences they risk. As the Court notes, we recognized the compelling nature of the interest in remedying past intentional discrimination in Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U. S. 467, 494 (1992), and of the interest in diversity in higher education in Grutter. [Footnote 29] See post, at 2834, 6465. Id., at 338, 123 S. Ct. 2325, 156 L. Ed. "[31] He goes on to explain that he is skeptical that school boards will always have such good intentions in their race-based decisionmaking, for, as Madison said, "if men were angels, no government would be necessary.". 22, 1977) (OCR Complaint) (filed with Court as Exhibit in Seattle School Dist. The propriety of preliminary relief and resolution of the merits are of course significantly different issues. In 1977, the NAACP filed another legal complaint, this time with the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfares Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Seattle has no history of de jure segregation; therefore, the Constitution did not require Seattles plan. To McDaniel? In design and operation, the plans are directed only to racial balance, pure and simple, an objective this Court has repeatedly condemned as illegitimate. in No. If a school district has an interest in teaching racial understanding and cooperation, there is no logical reason why that interest should not extend to the composition of the teaching staff as well as the composition of the student body. Siqueland 116117. 2d 854 (Kennedy, J., concurring in part [*2761] and concurring in judgment), "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. of Oral Arg. See, e.g., Milliken, supra, at 746. Kennedy argued that the government had an interest in ensuring racial equality: "The plurality opinion is too dismissive of the legitimate interest government has in ensuring all people have equal opportunity regardless of their race.". 5, p.27 (Respondents ask this Court to upset a long established and well settled principle recognized by numerous state Legislatures, and Courts, both state and federal, over a long period of years); Tr. 36, 71 (1872) ([N]o one can fail to be impressed with the one pervading purpose found in [all the Reconstruction amendments] . The student assignment plan of Seattle Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools does not meet the narrowly tailored and compelling interest requirements for a race-based assignment plan because it is used only to achieve "racial balance." Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens). A non-profit group, Parents Involved in Community Schools, sued the District, arguing that the racial tiebreaker violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Washington state law. of Cal. See ante, at 3436. The dissent attempts to marginalize the notion of a color-blind Constitution by consigning it to me and Members of todays plurality. Moreover, Louisvilles history makes clear that a community under a court order to desegregate might submit a race-conscious remedial plan before the court dissolved the order, but with every intention of following that plan even after dissolution. of Cal. The distinction between segregation by state action and racial imbalance caused by other factors has been central to our jurisprudence in this area for generations. The District argues that its use of race in high school admissions serves three compelling government interests: (1) the educational benefits of a diverse student body; (2) the reduction of racial isolation and de facto segregation; and (3) providing equality of opportunity to all students. Any classification based strictly on race, as the majority notes, still must be predicated on a demonstration that it is necessary. The dissent refers to an opinion filed by Judge Kozinski in one of the cases now before us, and that opinion relied upon an opinion filed by Chief Judge Boudin in a case presenting an issue similar to the one here. 05908, p. 42. of Boston v. Board of Education, O.T. 1967, No. See Welch 8391. . When questioned about the close timing, Gordon stated that all the District had to do was "push a button" to change things over to a plan compliant with the Court's ruling.