Published: Friday, June 29, 2007
Supreme Court puts new limits on integration
WASHINGTON (AP) — A half-century after the Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools, sharply divided justices clamped new limits Thursday on local school efforts to make sure children of different races share classrooms.
The court voted 5-4 to strike down school integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, a decision that imperiled similar plans that hundreds of cities and counties use voluntarily to integrate their schools.
The ruling does not affect several hundred other public school districts that remain under federal court order to desegregate.
Justices disagreed bluntly with each other in 169 pages of written opinions on whether the decision supports or betrays the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling that led to the end of state-sponsored school segregation in the United States.
The 5-4 decision, the 24th such split this term, displayed the new dominance of the court's aggressive conservative majority. The four liberal justices dissented.
Chief Justice John Roberts asserted in his majority opinion that by classifying students by race, the school districts are perpetuating the unequal treatment the Brown decision outlawed. "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," Roberts said.
Crucially for school districts seeking guidance, Justice Anthony Kennedy went along with the court's four most conservative members in rejecting the Louisville and Seattle plans but also said race may sometimes be a component of school efforts to achieve diversity.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More Stories from Fri, Jun 29, 2007
- On to the defense: Prosecution rests in case against Moonda
- High aquatic toll from spill into creek tributary
- S.D. tribal police break up beer blockade
- Bush claims executive privilege, rejects subpoena for...
- Texas preps for more rain, floods
- Archdiocese is appalled by premarital sex essay
- Scientists transform bacteria by swapping complete genomes
