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No. Consequently, regardless of the perceived negative effects of racial imbalance, I will not defer to legislative majorities where the Constitution forbids it. Nevertheless, the dissent tries to cast doubt on the historical fact that the Seattle schools were never segregated by law by citing allegations that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other organizations made in court filings to the effect that Seattles schools were once segregated by law. As of 2002, almost 2.4 million students, or over 5% of all public school enrollment, attended schools with a white population of less than 1%. We rely, as did the lower courts, largely on data from the 20002001 school year in evaluating the plan. 05915, Meredith, Custodial Parent and Next Friend of McDonald v. Jefferson County Bd. in KentuckyThe Second Year After the Supreme Courts Decision, 25 J. Negro Educ. Bd. yrs= (showing that reading scores went up, not down, when Seattles race-based assignment program ended at Sealth High School, Ingraham High School, and Franklin High Schoolsome of the schools most affected by the plan). Perhaps for this reason, the dissent conflates the concepts of segregation and racial imbalance: If racial imbalance equates to segregation, then it must also be constitutionally acceptable to use racial balancing to remedy racial imbalance. The schools base their numbers in demographics, therefore making this goal a means to achieve a numerical quota to achieve racial balancing. See Adarand Constructors, Inc., 515 U. S., at 237 ([S]trict scrutiny in this context is [not] strict in theory, but fatal in fact (quoting Fullilove, 448 U. S., at 519 (Marshall, J., concurring in judgment))). Strict scrutiny of race-based government decisionmaking is more searching than Chevron-style administrative review for reasonableness. Simply because the school districts may seek a worthy goal does not mean they are free to discriminate on the basis of race to achieve it, or that their racial classifications should be subject to less exacting scrutiny. 2. Rather, such powers should have been temporary and used only to overcome the widespread resistance to the dictates of the Constitution. 515 U. S., at 125 (Thomas, J., concurring). See, e.g., id., at 111. Parents of school children sued the Seattle School Districts after their children were assigned to particular schools based on racial classifications to achieve integration in the school system. 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. In this respect, Swann was not a sharp or unexpected departure from prior rulings; it reflected a consensus that had already emerged among state and lower federal courts. I do not know of any opinion which buoyed Marshall more in his pre-Brown days ). Politics 987, 991 (1976) (similar in Georgia); McDaniel v. Barresi, 402 U. S. 39, 40, n. 1 (1971) (Clarke County, Georgia). In addition to classroom separation, students of different races within the same school may separate themselves socially. App. Get free summaries of new US Supreme Court opinions delivered to your inbox! Specifically, Kennedy finds that the districts could have achieved the same goal through less racially charged means. That decision not only expressed our appraisal of the merits of the appeal, but it constitutes a precedent that the Court overrules today. Whether or not the Court chooses to afford similar deference to public secondary schools will shape the control school districts have over their own policies. See 426 F.3d 1162, 11691171 (CA9 2005) (en banc) (Parents Involved VII). See Swann, 402 U. S., at 31. 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. A. Croson Co., 488 U. S. 469, 504 (1989). In the administration of public schools by the state and local authorities it is permissible to consider the racial makeup of schools and to adopt general policies to encourage a diverse student body, one aspect of which is its racial composition. Reg. 2d 834, 837845, 855862 (WD Ky. 2004). The histories also indicate the complexity of the tasks and the practical difficulties that local school boards face when they seek to achieve greater racial integration. Second, there is an educational element: an interest in overcoming the adverse educational effects produced by and associated with highly segregated schools. It should escape no one that behind Justice Breyers veil of judicial modesty hides an inflated role for the Federal Judiciary. 205, 961 F.2d 1335, 1338 (CA7 1992) (Easterbrook, J.) Are they to draw numbers out of thin air? (If petitioners purpose is to assure within its student body some specified percentage of a particular group merely because of its race or ethnic origin, such a preferential purpose must be rejected as facially invalid). Synopsis of Rule of Law. See id., at 12, 2930. 2d 834, 839840, and n. 6 (WD Ky. 2004) (McFarland I). Moreover, the democratic interest has no durational limit, contrary to Grutters command. What the dissent fails to understand, however, is that the color-blind Constitution does not bar the government from taking measures to remedy past state-sponsored discriminationindeed, it requires that such measures be taken in certain circumstances. all the civil rights that the superior race enjoy). See 426 F.3d, at 1208 (Bea, J., dissenting). However, racial imbalance without intentional state action to separate the races does not amount to segregation. Pp. must be analyzed by a reviewing court under strict scrutiny. Ante, at 31, n.16 (quoting Adarand, 515 U. S., at 227). None of the considerations trumpeted by the dissent is relevant to the constitutionality of the school boards race-based plans because no contextual detailor collection of contextual details, post, at 222can provide refuge from the principle that under our Constitution, the government may not make distinctions on the basis of race. Adarand, 515 U. S., at 240 (Thomas, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). See post, at 62. At the same time, it is urged that these laws are valid as a matter of constitutionally permissible social experimentation by the States. The districts have also failed to show they considered methods other than explicit racial classifications to achieve their stated goals. And when de facto discrimination is at issue our tradition has been that the remedial rules are different. in No. The statement was not a technical holding in the case. It is not clear why the racial guidelines were even applied to Joshuas transfer applicationthe guidelines supposedly do not apply at the kindergarten level. See 426 F. 3d 1162, 11931196 (CA9 2005) (Kozinski, J., concurring); Comfort v. Lynn School Comm., 418 F.3d 1, 2729 (CA1 2005) (Boudin, C.J., concurring). The Court quoted the articulation of diversity from Justice Powells opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265 (1978), noting that it is not an interest in simple ethnic diversity, in which a specified percentage of the student body is in effect guaranteed to be members of selected ethnic groups, that can justify the use of race. Grutter, supra, at 324325 (citing and quoting Bakke, supra, at 314315 (opinion of Powell, J. Wygant, 476 U. S., at 275276 (plurality opinion); id., at 295 (White, J., concurring in judgment). Before Brown, the most prominent example of an exemplary black school was Dunbar High School. The fact that the controlling opinion would make a school districts use of such criteria often unlawful (and the pluralitys colorblind view would make such use always unlawful) suggests that todays opinion will require setting aside the laws of several States and many local communities. The groups members have children in the districts elementary, middle, and high schools, App. 1, p. 51 (The delicate nature of the problem of segregation and the paramount interest of the State of Kansas in preserving the internal peace and tranquility of its people indicates that this is a question which can best be solved on the local level, at least until Congress declares otherwise). See Brief for Petitioner at 35. Finally, I recognize that the Court seeks to distinguish Grutter from these cases by claiming that Grutter arose in the context of higher education. Ante, at 16. The dissent does not explain how its recognition of an interest in teaching racial understanding and cooperation here is consistent with the Courts rejection of a similar interest in Wygant. 1 et al. It was not the inequality of the facilities but the fact of legally separating children based on race on which the Court relied to find a constitutional violation in that case. Even if the district maintains the current plan and reinstitutes the racial tiebreaker, Seattle argues, Parents Involved members will only be affected if their children seek to enroll in a Seattle public high school and choose an oversubscribed school that is integration positivetoo speculative a harm to maintain standing. See ante, at 9 (Executive and legislative branches, which for generations now have considered these types of policies and procedures, should be permitted to employ them with candor and with confidence that a constitutional violation does not occur whenever a decisionmaker considers the impact a given approach might have on students of different races). Unless we believe that the Constitution enforces one legal standard for the South and another for the North, this Court should grant Seattle the permission it granted Clarke County, Georgia. 1, 458 U. S. 457, is directly on point. App. 1.9 In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. In reality, it is far from apparent that coerced racial mixing has any educational benefits, much less that integration is necessary to black achievement. In the Justice's 77-page written opinion he called the ruling a "radical" step away from established law that would take from communities a critical tool used for many years in the prevention of resegregation. Justice Breyers dissent takes a different approach to these cases, one that fails to ground the result it would reach in law. As the Court explained, [t]he importance of this individualized consideration in the context of a race-conscious admissions program is paramount. Ibid. But I am quite comfortable in the company I keep. Because equal protection on the basis of race is at issue, the applicable standard of review to be applied in this case is strict scrutiny, as both parties agree, and as is well established in the Courts prior case law. Percentage of Students in Minority Schools by Race, 20002001. 2, p. 50 ([T]he state is deprived of any power to make any racial classifications in any governmental field). The new plan worked roughly as expected for the two school years during which it was in effect (19992000 and 20002001). In Brown, this Court held that the governments segregation of schoolchildren by race violates the Constitutions promise of equal protection. Brief for Respondents in No. And the board continued to describe 26 of its 112 schools as segregated.. Written and curated by real attorneys at Quimbee. 1986). But our precedent has recognized that de jure discrimination can be present even in the absence of racially explicit laws. Ohio adds that a district may object to the enrollment of a native student in an adjacent or other district in order to maintain an appropriate racial balance. 3313.98 (F)(1)(a). Because students often attend schools closest to their homes, the result is racially segregated schools. No. "[11] of Ed., 402 U. S. 1, 24 (1971) (The constitutional command to desegregate schools does not mean that every school in every community must always reflect the racial composition of the school system as a whole), and here Jefferson County has already been found to have eliminated the vestiges of its prior segregated school system. A mixture? The district retained a racial tiebreaker for oversubscribed schools, which takes effect only if the schools minority or majority enrollment falls outside of a 30% range centered on the minority/majority population ratio within the district. I believe that the law requires application here of a standard of review that is not strict in the traditional sense of that word, although it does require the careful review I have just described. 2002). And it used busing to transport the students to their new assignments. Id. 05908, at 224a225a, 253a259a, 307a. These decisions illustrate well how lower courts understood and followed Swanns enunciation of the relevant legal principle. See post, at 35 (citing 426 F.3d 1162, 11931196 (CA9 2005) (concurring opinion) (citing Comfort v. Lynn School Comm., 418 F.3d 1, 2729 (CA1 2005) (Boudin, C.J., concurring))). Both districts sought greater racial integration for educational and democratic, as well as for remedial, reasons. It simply recognizes that judges are not well suited to act as school administrators. Even as to race, the plans here employ only a limited notion of diversity, viewing race exclusively in white/nonwhite terms in Seattle and black/other terms in Jefferson County. The Seattle School Board challenged the constitutionality of the initiative. But segregation policies did not simply tell schoolchildren where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin, ante, at 40 (plurality opinion); they perpetuated a caste system rooted in the institutions of slavery and 80 years of legalized subordination. The remedy, though, was limited in time and limited to the wrong. Pp. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard . See also Quillian & Campbell 541. In contrast, Seattles website formerly described emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology as a form of cultural racism, and currently states that the district has no intention to hold onto unsuccessful concepts such as [a] colorblind mentality. Harrell, School Web Site Removed: Examples of Racism Sparked Controversy, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 2, 2006, pp. Swann, 402 U. S., at 16. Navigating around that inconvenient authority, the dissent argues that the racial balancing in these plans is not an end in itself but is instead intended to teac[h] children to engage in the kind of cooperation among Americans of all races that is necessary to make a land of three hundred million people one Nation. Post, at 3940. of New Kent Cty., 391 U. S. 430, 435 (1968) ([T]he State, acting through the local school board and school officials, organized and operated a dual system, part white and part Negro. It was such dual systems that 14 years ago Brown I[, 347 U. S. 483,] held unconstitutional and a year later Brown II[, 349 U. S. 294 (1955)] held must be abolished). 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. [Footnote 22] The dissent argues that todays decision threatens to substitute for present calm a disruptive round of race-related litigation, post, at 2, and claims that todays decision risks serious harm to the law and for the Nation, post, at 65. Croson, 488 U. S., at 504. For several decades this Court has rested its public school decisions upon Swanns basic view that the Constitution grants local school districts a significant degree of leeway where the inclusive use of race-conscious criteria is at issue. For one thing, consider the effect of the pluralitys views on the parties before us and on similar school districts throughout the Nation. See McDaniel, 402 U. S., at 41 ([S]teps will almost invariably require that students be assigned differently because of their race. . See 539 U. S., at 320. The Chief Justice states that the Massachusetts racial imbalance Act did not require express classifications. See McDaniel, supra, at 41. Perhaps recognizing that reliance on Grutter cannot sustain their plans, both school districts assert additional interests, distinct from the interest upheld in Grutter, to justify their race-based assignments. Narrow tailoring requires "serious, good faith consideration of workable race-neutral alternatives", Grutter, supra, at 339, 123 S. Ct. 2325, 156 L. Ed. [4], The Parents Involved decision was a "split decision." 2d, at 844845, nn. (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 the Jefferson County case, the District Court found that the school district had asserted a compelling interest in maintaining racially diverse schools, and that its plan was, in all relevant respects, narrowly tailored to serve that interest. [Footnote 1]. at 309a; School Board Report, School Choices and Assignments 20052006 School Year (Apr. The dissent overreads Grutter, however, in suggesting that it renders pure racial balancing a constitutionally compelling interest; Grutter itself recognized that using race simply to achieve racial balance would be patently unconstitutional, 539 U. S., at 330. In the Seattle case, the District Court granted the school district summary judgment, finding, inter alia, that its plan survived strict scrutiny on the federal constitutional claim because it was narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. The fact that Seattle has ceased using the racial tiebreaker pending the outcome here is not dispositive, since the district vigorously defends its programs constitutionality, and nowhere suggests that it will not resume using race to assign students if it prevails. Finally, it lists several race-neutral alternatives that were considered (such as a lottery system, the use of poverty as a proxy for race, and regional assignments) and argues that they would not have been as effective as the plan that is the subject of this litigation. Today, they cannot. PICS did not respond to this argument in either of its reply briefs. See Brief for Petitioner at 21. See, e.g., Hallinan 745; Quillian & Campbell, Beyond Black and White: The Present and Future of Multiracial Friendship Segregation, 68 Am. Opposition to Writ of Certiorari at 20; Brief for Respondent at 16. This discrepancy is not some simple and straightforward error that touches only upon the peripheries of the districts use of individual racial classifications. Although the matter was the subject of disagreement on the Court, see id., at 346347 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); id., at 382383 (Rehnquist, C.J., dissenting); id., at 388392 (Kennedy, J., dissenting), the majority concluded that the law school did not count back from its applicant pool to arrive at the meaningful number it regarded as necessary to diversify its student body. Contrary to the dissents rhetoric, neither of these school districts is threatened with resegregation, and neither is constitutionally compelled or permitted to undertake race-based remediation. The Supreme Court will be forced to closely examine the social and education benefits that, as the District argues, come from racial and ethnic diversity in secondary education. Croson, 488 U. S., at 501 (The history of racial classifications in this country suggests that blind judicial deference to legislative or executive pronouncements of necessity has no place in equal protection analysis). The plurality would decline their modest request. The respondents raised this issue in their brief opposing the grant of certiorari. In both cities plaintiffs filed lawsuits claiming unconstitutional segregation. 2d 257 (2003) (quoting [***38] Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448, 537, 100 S. Ct. 2758, 65 L. Ed. Although much depends on the outcome, the rationale of the Court is equally important in this case and to the future policy of public schools. The present cases are before us, however, because the Seattle school district was never segregated by law, and the Jefferson County district has been found to be unitary, having eliminated the vestiges of its prior dual status. [B]enign carries with it no independent meaning, but reflects only acceptance of the current generations conclusion that a politically acceptable burden, imposed on particular citizens on the basis of race, is reasonable. Metro Broadcasting, 497 U. S., at 609610 (OConnor, J., dissenting). 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. Whatever those demographics happen to be drives the required diversity number in each district. in Briggs v. Elliott, O.T. 1953, No. 529, 532 (SC 1951))); Brief for Appellees in Briggs v. Elliott, O.T. 1952, No. If the Supreme Court affirms this holding, it will be a departure from that in Gratz and Grutter which specified diversity as a compelling state interest and emphasized the importance of considering race as only one factor in a holistic review of an applicants potential contribution to the diversity of the school. That point was challenged in Justice Breyer's dissent (joined by Stevens, Souter and Ginsberg). See, e.g., Yonezawa, Wells, & Serna, Choosing Tracks: Freedom of Choice in Detracting Schools, 39 Am. Id., at 73. Ante, at 1718. Indeed, remedial measures geared toward such broad and unrelated societal ills have no logical stopping point, ibid., and threaten to become ageless in their reach into the past, and timeless in their ability to affect the future, Wygant, supra, at 276 (plurality opinion). No case of this Court has ever relied upon the de jure/de facto distinction in order to limit what a school district is voluntarily allowed to do. See post, at 2829. The reason for this omission is clear enough, since the case did not involve any voluntary means adopted by a school district. Evidence from the Segregated Schooling of African American Children, in Beyond Desegregation 209226 (M. Shujaa ed. The compelling interest at issue here, then, includes an effort to eradicate the remnants, not of general societal discrimination, ante, at 23 (plurality opinion), but of primary and secondary school segregation, see supra, at 7, 14; it includes an effort to create school environments that provide better educational opportunities for all children; it includes an effort to help create citizens better prepared to know, to understand, and to work with people of all races and backgrounds, thereby furthering the kind of democratic government our Constitution foresees. We take the Grutter Court at its word. Percentage of White Students in Schools Attended by the Average Black Student, 19682000. The plurality cites in support those who argued in Brown against segregation, and Justice Thomas likens the approach that I have taken to that of segregations defenders. Court-Imposed Guidelines and Busing, 1972 to 1991. Section 4. Both districts also considered elaborate studies and consulted widely within their communities. Public School Dist., 34 (Apr. Gratz involved a system where race was not the entire classification. of Boston v. Board of Education, 352 Mass. The Western District of Washington dismissed the suit, upholding the tiebreaker. App. 3, p.1617 (It is by such practical considerations based on experience rather than by theoretical inconsistencies that the question of equal protection is to be answered (quoting Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. New York, 336 U. S. 110 (1949))); Brief for Appellees on Reargument in Davis v. County School Board, O.T. 1953, No. See ante, at 31-32, n.16. See ante, at 1820. in No. boundary lines and executing school attendance policies that would create and maintain predominantly Negro or non-white schools, and in part by building schools in such a manner as to restrict the Negro plaintiffs and the class they represent to predominantly negro or non-white schools. The complaint also charged that the board discriminated in assigning teachers. Ibid. This type of exclusion, solely on the basis of race, is precisely the sort of government action that pits the races against one another, exacerbates racial tension, and provoke[s] resentment among those who believe that they have been wronged by the governments use of race. Adarand, supra, at 241 (opinion of Thomas, J.). 2, p. 76 ([A] State has power to establish a school system which is capable of efficient administration, taking into account local problems and conditions). School authorities are traditionally given broad discretionary powers to formulate and implement educational policy and may properly decide to ensure to their students the value of an integrated school experience. Citizens for Better Ed. The second government interest we have recognized as compelling for purposes of strict scrutiny is the interest in diversity in higher education upheld in Grutter, 539 U. S., at 328. Gratz, supra, at 301 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting); Adarand, supra, at 243 (Stevens, J., dissenting); Carter, When Victims Happen To Be Black, 97 Yale L.J. See, e.g., Exec. The plurality could validly claim that no court ever found that Seattle schools were segregated in law. And if Seattle School Dist. ), appeal dismd for want of a substantial federal question, 484 U. S. 804 (1987). What about historically black colleges, which have established traditions and programs that might disproportionately appeal to one race or another? The segregationists also relied upon the likely practical consequences of ending the state-imposed system of racial separation. 05915, at 38 (Decisions to assign students to schools within each cluster are based on available space within the [elementary] schools and the racial guidelines in the Districts current student assignment plan); id., at 82 (acknowledging that a student may not be assigned to his or her resides school if it has reached the extremes of the racial guidelines). Moreover, there is research-based evidence supporting, for example, that a ratio no greater than 50% minoritywhich is Louisvilles starting point, and as close as feasible to Seattles starting pointis helpful in limiting the risk of white flight. See Orfield, Metropolitan School Desegregation: Impacts on Metropolitan Society, in Pursuit of a Dream Deferred: Linking Housing and Education Policy 121, 125. In the real world, it is regrettable to say, it cannot be a universal constitutional principle. However, allegations in complaints cannot substitute for specific findings of prior discriminationeven when those allegations lead to settlements with complaining parties. [Footnote 25] And just as the dissent argues that the need for these programs will lessen over time, the segregationists claimed that reliance on segregation was lessening and might eventually end. to Brief for 553 Social Scientists as Amici Curiae 1314 (footnote omitted). Nathan Hales 20052006 enrollment was 17.3 percent Asian-American, 10.7 percent African-American, 8 percent Latino, 61.5 percent Caucasian, and 2.5 percent Native-American. The District first gave priority to students who had a sibling at the school. See Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 373374 (1886). Sometimes a court refers to it as an interest in achieving racial diversity. Other times a court, like the plurality here, refers to it as an interest in racial balancing. I have used more general terms to signify that interest, describing it, for example, as an interest in promoting or preserving greater racial integration of public schools. The dissent asserts that racially balanced schools improve educational outcomes for black children. (a)Because racial classifications are simply too pernicious to permit any but the most exact connection between justification and classification, Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U. S. 448, 537 (Stevens, J., dissenting), governmental distributions of burdens or benefits based on individual racial classifications are reviewed under strict scrutiny, e.g., Johnson v. California, 543 U. S. 499, 505506. 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. The dissent avoids reaching that conclusion by unquestioningly accepting the assertions of selected social scientists while completely ignoring the fact that those assertions are the subject of fervent debate. We relied on the fact that this Court had not once but seven times, I think it is, pronounced in favor of the separate but equal doctrine. Hist. The Founders meant the Constitution as a practical document that would transmit its basic values to future generations through principles that remained workable over time. Ostate-imposed desegregation could only be brought about by busing children across school districts.