in No. In Grutter, the consideration of race was viewed as indispensable in more than tripling minority representation at the law schoolfrom 4 to 14.5 percent. The board estimated that its new plan would lead to annual reassignment (with busing) of about 8,500 black students and about 8,000 white students. 2002). 3, p.8 ([W]e take the unqualified position that the Fourteenth Amendment has totally stripped the state of power to make race and color the basis for governmental action); Tr. See, e.g., Swann, supra, at 16; Seattle School Dist. If there were doubts before Swann was decided, they did not survive this Courts decision. See Brief for Respondents in No. Answer: the equal protection clause Explanation: the Supreme Court ruled in brown v board of education that separate public accommodations for African Americans where discernibly unequal and thus violated the 14th amendments equal protection clause Advertisement New questions in History For the foregoing reasons, this conclusory argument cannot sustain the plans. of Oral Arg. Thus, in North Carolina Bd. See post, at 79, 23. The specific interest found compelling in Grutter was student body diversity in the context of higher education. Ibid. For the purpose of this section, racial imbalance shall be deemed to exist when the per cent of nonwhite students in any public school is in excess of fifty per cent of the total number of students in such school. 352 Mass., at 695, 227 N.E. 2d, at 731. Although the District tried to make each high school unique by offering different programs, thus making each desirable, some schools were significantly more popular than others. 1, 458 U. S. 457, 472, n.15 (1982), post, at 5657, but there this Court expressly noted that it was not passing on the propriety of race-conscious student assignments in the absence of a finding of de jure segregation. 1995). 1*, How are the Equal Protection rights of public high school students affected by the jurisprudence of. The Nations schools strive to teach that our strength comes from people of different races, creeds, and cultures uniting in commitment to the freedom of all. School authorities have the primary responsibility for elucidating, assessing, and solving these problems; courts will have to consider whether the action of school authorities constitutes good faith implementation of the governing constitutional principles). The reason is obvious: In Seattle, where the overall student population is 41% white, permitting 85% white enrollment at a single school would make it much more likely that other schools would have very few white students, whereas in Jefferson County, with a 60% white enrollment, one school with 85% white students would be less likely to skew enrollments elsewhere. The President of the United States dispatched the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, and federal troops were needed to enforce a desegregation decree. [Footnote 12] Each school district argues that educational and broader socialization benefits flow from a racially diverse learning environment, and each contends that because the diversity they seek is racial diversitynot the broader diversity at issue in Grutterit makes sense to promote that interest directly by relying on race alone. First, it contends that the schools were already diverse; in particular it notes that the non-white population was made up of students from varying backgrounds such as Asian, Hispanic, and African-American, making them diverse even when there was not a significant white population. I shall not accept the school boards assurances on faith, cf. Louisville's population is about 58% White; 38% Black, 2% Asian, 1.3% Hispanic. Id., at 143a146a, 152a160a. And in no field is this right of the several states more clearly recognized than in that of public education (quoting Briggs v. Elliott, 98 F.Supp. Brown v. Board of Education. In Seattle, for example, in more than 80% of all cases, that choice alone determines which high schools Seattles ninth graders will attend. Finally, the plan created two new magnet schools, one each at the elementary and middle school levels. 10925, 26 Fed. How could such a plan be lawful the day before dissolution but then become unlawful the very next day? See Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. of Cal. 1986) (citing Swann and North Carolina Bd. Like the Texas court, the Ninth Circuit relied upon Swann and North Carolina Bd. See Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U. S. 70, 124125 (1995), (Thomas, J., concurring). It applied that label to 26 schools, including 4 high schoolsCleveland (72.8% minority), Franklin (76.6% minority), Garfield (78.4% minority), and Rainier Beach (58.9% minority). Croson, 488 U. S., at 504. The Chief Justice delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, IIIA, and IIIC, concluding: 1. 2005), online at http://www.seattleschools.org/area/facilties&nbhyph;plan/Choice/05&nbhyph; 05908. 7045 and 7291 (WD Ky., July 30, 1975) (1975 Judgment and Findings). This case was originally filed in 2001 in the Western District of Washington, which ruled in favor of the school district. Indeed, if there is no such plan, or if such plans are purely imagined, it is understandable why, as the plurality notes, ante, at 27, Seattle school officials concentrated on diminishing the racial component of their districts plan, but did not pursue eliminating that element entirely. 3. 1, p. 7 (We have one fundamental contention which we will seek to develop in the course of this argument, and that contention is that no State has any authority under the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens); Tr. Consequently I must conclude that the plans here are permitted under the Constitution. If we are to insist upon unanimity in the social science literature before finding a compelling interest, we might never find one. 1806, 20 U. S.C. 7231 et seq. See also ante, at 2223 (Thomas, J., concurring). Politics 987, 991 (1976) (similar in Georgia); McDaniel v. Barresi, 402 U. S. 39, 40, n. 1 (1971) (Clarke County, Georgia). A non-profit group, Parents Involved in Community Schools (Parents), 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. The Current Plan: Project Renaissance Modified, 1996 to 2003. 05915, at 45, the racial guidelines apply at all grade levels. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle (2007) In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger that race-based classifications, as used in affirmative-action policies, must be "narrowly tailored" to a "compelling government interest," like diversity. This Nation has a moral and ethical obligation to fulfill its historic commitment to creating an integrated society that ensures equal opportunity for all of its children. in Brown v. Board of Education, O.T. 1952, No. But with reference to schools, the effect of the legal wrong proved most difficult to correct. Race is not. Is racial diversity a compelling interest that can justify the use of race in selecting students for admission to public high schools? The orders requirements reflected a (newly enlarged) school district student population of about 135,000, approximately 20% of whom were black. In 2003, the petitioner now before us, Crystal Meredith, brought this lawsuit challenging the plans unmodified portions, i.e., those portions that dealt with ordinary, not magnet, schools. Unlike de jure segregation, there is no ultimate remedy for racial imbalance. But I can find no case in which this Court has followed Justice Thomas colorblind approach. This will surely, however, restrict school districts efforts to achieve diversity and the benefits that arguably come with it. See Part IIB, infra. According to the dissent, integration involves an interest in setting right the consequences of prior conditions of segregation. Post, at 37. there are two compelling interests: 1. remedying the effect of past intentional discrimination 2. interest of student body diversity in higher education 1. Siqueland 116117. In dozens of subsequent cases, this Court told school districts previously segregated by law what they must do at a minimum to comply with Browns constitutional holding. A 1987 Civil Rights Commission Study of 125 school districts in the Nation demonstrated the breadth and variety of desegregation plans: The [study] documents almost 300 desegregation plans that were implemented between 1961 and 1985. Each of these premises is, in my respectful view, incorrect. 426 F.3d 1162, 1166 (9th Cir. 2. In other words, it will always be important for students to learn cooperation among the races. The system that was upheld in Grutter considered a number of other factors to assure diversity of not only race but also socioeconomic status, skills, and so forth. An interest linked to nothing other than proportional representation of various races would support indefinite use of racial classifications, employed first to obtain the appropriate mixture of racial views and then to ensure that the [program] continues to reflect that mixture. Metro Broadcasting, supra, at 614 (OConnor, J., dissenting). It does have a duty to provide all children with equal opportunities. The upshot is that these plans specific features(1) their limited and historically-diminishing use of race, (2) their strong reliance upon other non-race-conscious elements, (3) their history and the manner in which the districts developed and modified their approach, (4) the comparison with prior plans, and (5) the lack of reasonably evident alternativestogether show that the districts plans are narrowly tailored to achieve their compelling goals. 7045 and 7291 (WD Ky., Sept. 24, 1985), p.3; Memorandum from Donald W. Ingwerson, Superintendent, to the Board of Education, Jefferson Cty. Banks & C. Banks eds. In this hearing en banc, the Ninth Circuit reversed itself yet again, ruling that the Seattle school districts admission program was narrowly tailored and constitutionally acceptable. 1617. But the principle of inherent equality that underlies and infuses our Constitution required the disestablishment of de jure segregation. 1986). These other meanse.g., where to construct new schools, how to allocate resources among schools, and which academic offerings to provide to attract students to certain schoolsimplicate different considerations than the explicit racial classifications at issue in these cases, and we express no opinion on their validitynot even in dicta. It defines the democratic element as an interest in producing an educational environment that reflects the pluralistic society in which our children will live. Post, at 39. Evidence from the Segregated Schooling of African American Children, in Beyond Desegregation 209226 (M. Shujaa ed. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. The pluralitys claim that Seattle was never segregated by law is simply not accurate. Each respondent has failed to provide the necessary support for the proposition that there is no other way than individual racial classifications to avoid racial isolation in their school districts. 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. A court finding of de jure segregation cannot be the crucial variable. 05915, at 22. While the school districts use various verbal formulations to describe the interest they seek to promoteracial diversity, avoidance of racial isolation, racial integrationthey offer no definition suggesting that their interest differs from racial balancing. It therefore reversed the lower courts original finding of no discrimination and remanded, instructing the lower court to issue an injunction to prevent the District from using this system. However, the actual hard-won gain in these cases is the elimination of the vestiges of the system of state-enforced racial separation that once existed in Louisville. 420, 433434 (1988). However, the government is entitled to consider race as one of several factors in determining school admissions and enrollment.