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Supreme
Court Says No to Specific School Integration Plans, but Continues
to Endorse Diversity as Compelling Interest
SAN
FRANCISCO (Thursday, June 28, 2007) - The Equal Justice Society
issued the following statement today regarding the Supreme Court
decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle
School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board
of Education:
"We're
encouraged that school districts may continue to use available
tools to achieve the critical goals of equal educational opportunity
and inclusion that a majority of the Court endorsed today,"
said Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor
of Law, founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton
Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and board chair of the
Equal Justice Society.
"Just
as race can still be considered to achieve the goal of attaining
integration and diversity in K-12 education," continued Ogletree,
"this decision continues to endorse the core ruling of the
University of Michigan affirmative action decisions and the ability
to use race as a factor to achieve the compelling interest of
diversity in education."
"Although
the Court struck down the specific school integration plans, a
majority of the Justices recognize and acknowledge that educational
diversity and eliminating segregation in all its divisive forms
remains a compelling governmental interest. Fortunately, school
districts can continue to take race into account to achieve these
important ends," said Kimberly Thomas Rapp, EJS director
of law and public policy.
"While
we disagree with the ruling since it limits options available
to school districts to eliminate racial segregation, we agree
with the majority of Justices that believe school districts can
affirmatively consider race as a factor among many when pursuing
diversity and inclusion in our schools. Many options remain open
to schools that allow districts to take race into account, including
factors such as site selection, drawing attendance zones and magnet
schools," said Thomas Rapp.
"It's
troubling that four members of the Court -- including the two
most recent Justices nominated by President Bush -- would have
outlawed almost all effective efforts to promote inclusion in
our nation's schools. They would have preferred to tear apart
Brown v. Board of Education, which ended de jure segregation,
from its historical roots and would have used it to blind school
districts to existing racial segregation in their communities.
The extreme position taken by these Justices highlights the importance
of closer scrutiny of justices and judges nominated by the President."
An
EJS paper, "Relationship of the Intent Doctrine to Seattle
and Louisville and the Need to Preserve Brown's Legacy,"
is posted on our www.MotleyFellow.org
blog.
The
Equal Justice Society (www.equaljusticesociety.org)
is a national advocacy organization strategically advancing social
and racial justice through law and public policy, communications
and the arts, and alliance building.
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