Another 1,200 black students and 400 white students participated in the previously adopted voluntary transfer program. The only counter argument in the record is the Ninth Circuits resolution of the question. Segregation at the time of Brown gave way to expansive remedies that included busing, which in turn gave rise to fears of white flight and resegregation. 90a92a. Why may the authorities not recognize the problem in candid fashion and solve it altogether through resort to direct assignments based on student racial classifications? 1. Jefferson County Public Schools operates the public school system in metropolitan Louisville, Kentucky. In light of the foregoing, Justice Breyers appeal to stare decisis rings particularly hollow. Who exactly is white and who is nonwhite? ment one would expect to find if black achievement were contin- Ante, at 28. 2d 304. Is it not of all the activities of government the one which most nearly approaches the hearts and minds of people, the question of the education of their young? See ante, at 3436. 1, 458 U. S., at 472473. Together with No. This means that the government must identify a compelling interest and show that it has used a narrowly tailored means to further it. '"[17], Part III B[14] (joined only by a plurality of the Court) rejected the notion that racial balancing could be a compelling state interest, as to do so "would justify the imposition of racial proportionality throughout American society, contrary to our repeated recognition that "[a]t the heart of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection lies the simple command that the Government must treat citizens as individuals, not as simply components of a racial, religious, sexual or national class. And when de facto discrimination is at issue our tradition has been that the remedial rules are different. 05915, 416 F.3d 513, reversed and remanded. Research suggests, for example, that black children from segregated educational environments significantly increase their achievement levels once they are placed in a more integrated setting. The districts past and current plans are not unique. 2d, at 1289. First, as demonstrated above, the two concepts are distinct. Id., at 25. in No. 1117, 2528. Most white families live north of the downtown area where four high schoolsBallard, Ingraham, Nathan Hale, and Rooseveltare located. 1 operates 10 regular public high schools. We have emphasized that the harm being remedied by mandatory desegregation plans is the harm that is traceable to segregation, and that the Constitution is not violated by racial imbalance in the schools, without more. Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U. S. 267, 280, n.14 (1977). 3 1996 Memorandum 58; Hampton I, supra, at 768, n.30. Not every decision influenced by race is equally objectionable, and strict scrutiny is designed to provide a framework for carefully examining the importance and the sincerity of the reasons advanced by the governmental decisionmaker for the use of race in that particular context. 539 U. S., at 326327. Despite his argument that these cases should be evaluated under a standard of review that is not strict in the traditional sense of that word, post, at 36, Justice Breyer still purports to apply strict scrutiny to these cases. Now localities will have to cope with the difficult problems they face (including resegregation) deprived of one means they may find necessary. As to the dissent, the general conclusions upon which it relies have no principled limit and would result in the broad acceptance of governmental racial classifications in areas far afield from schooling. . The Jefferson County plan, however, is based on a goal of replicating at each school an African-American enrollment equivalent to the average district-wide African-American enrollment. Id., at 81. Here, in contrast, the schools worked backward to achieve a particular type of racial balance, rather than working forward from some demonstration of the level of diversity that provides the purported benefits. See, e.g., Eisenberg v. Montgomery Cty. . Voluntary cessation does not moot a case or controversy unless 'subsequent events ma[ke] it absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur,'", First, "remedying the effects of past intentional discrimination.". First, it seeks to distinguish Swann and other similar cases on the ground that those cases involved remedial plans in response to judicial findings of de jure segregation. That is a gamble I am unwilling to take, and it is one the Constitution does not allow. See Reply Brief at 3. of Ed., 402 U. S. 1, 16 (1971), by then-Justice Rehnquist in chambers in Bustop, Inc. v. Los Angeles Bd. The dissents reliance on this interest is, therefore, inconsistent with Wygant. At the state level, 46 States and Puerto Rico have adopted policies that encourage or require local school districts to enact interdistrict or intradistrict open choice plans. See, e.g., Powell, Living and Learning: Linking Housing and Education, in Pursuit of a Dream Deferred: Linking Housing and Education Policy 15, 35 (J. Powell, G. Kearney, & V. Kay eds. In fact, the available data from the Seattle school district appear to undercut the dissents view. The dissent attempts to marginalize the notion of a color-blind Constitution by consigning it to me and Members of todays plurality. Indeed, the race-conscious ranges at issue in these cases often have no effect, either because the particular school is not oversubscribed in the year in question, or because the racial makeup of the school falls within the broad range, or because the student is a transfer applicant or has a sibling at the school. 05908, p.84a; Brief for Respondents in No. The plan forbade transfers, however, if the transfer would lead to a school population outside the guideline range, i.e., if it would create a school where fewer than 15% or more than 50% of the students were black. The Seattle public schools have not shown they were ever segregated by law, and were not subject to court ordered desegregation decrees. 05908, at 1920; Brief for Respondents in No. 05-908 v. SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. You can explore additional available newsletters here. No. Opinions differed. To the contrary, there is every reason to believe that it represented part of an effort to implement the 1978 desegregation order. It was not long ago that people of different races drank from separate fountains, rode on separate buses, and studied in separate schools. Reply Brief for Petitioner in No. Thus, in North Carolina Bd. Compare Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U. S. 537, 559 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting) (Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. [Footnote 19] See ibid. Indeed, in its brief Seattle simply assumes that the educational benefits track the racial breakdown of the district. Next, the dissent argues that the interest in integration has an educational element. to Brief for 553 Social Scientists as Amici Curiae 1314 (footnote omitted). 05908, . See, e.g., Freeman, supra, at 494. But the Court set forth in Swann a basic principle of constitutional lawa principle of law that has found wide acceptance in the legal culture. Dickerson v. United States, 530 U. S. 428, 443 (2000) (internal quotation marks omitted); Mitchell v. United States, 526 U. S. 314, 330 (1999); id., at 331, 332 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (citing wide acceptance in the legal culture as adequate reason not to overrule prior cases). in Brown v. Board of Education, O.T. 1952, No. Here Roberts provides the following string citation: quoting Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244, 270, 123 S. Ct. 2411, 156 L. Ed. See id., at 2428. In Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483, the Court held that segregation deprived black children of equal educational opportunities regardless of whether school facilities and other tangible factors were equal, because the classification and separation themselves denoted inferiority. At the same time, the plan provided that a previous black school would remain about 50% black, while a previous white school would remain about two-thirds white. Moreover, the school districts did not consider other options that might have been more narrowly tailored. The Current Lawsuit, 2003 to the Present. of Ed., 102 F.Supp. They further contend that the children who have yet to reach high school age fail to fulfill the first requirement because their potential injury is not imminent; they have not even applied yet and consequently any injury to them is purely hypothetical at this point. 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.". I do not understand why this Courts cases, which rest the significance of a unitary finding in part upon the wisdom and desirability of returning schools to local control, should deprive those local officials of legal permission to use means they once found necessary to combat persisting injustices. Brief for Respondent at 3342. The Seattle school district classifies children as white or nonwhite; the Jefferson County school district as black or other. In Seattle, this racial classification is used to allocate slots in oversubscribed high schools. Again, data support this insight. we mean the freedom of the slave race); Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 303, 306 (1879) ([The Fourteenth Amendment] is one of a series of constitutional provisions having a common purpose; namely, securing to a race recently emancipated . McFarland I, 330 F.Supp. No. App. In addition, Meredith sought damages in her complaint, which is sufficient to preserve our ability to consider the question. The Ninth Circuit held that the burden had not been met since counsel for the School District admitted it was likely that the policy would be reinstated. The district did not attempt to defend the proposition that anything outside its range posed the specter of exceptionality. Nor did it demonstrate in any way how the educational and social benefits of racial diversity or avoidance of racial isolation are more likely to be achieved at a school that is 50 percent white and 50 percent Asian-American, which would qualify as diverse under Seattles plan, than at a school that is 30 percent Asian-American, 25 percent African-American, 25 percent Latino, and 20 percent white, which under Seattles definition would be racially concentrated. 1, pp. After he had enrolled and after the academic year had begun, he then applied to transfer to his preferred school after the kindergarten assignment deadline had passed, id., at 21, possibly causing school officials to treat his late request as an application to transfer to the first grade, in respect to which the guidelines apply. In 2000, for example, Roosevelt was the most popular first choice high school in Seattle; in 2001, Ballard was the most popular; in 2000, West Seattle was one of the least popular; by 2003, it was one of the more popular.