Vol. 71/No. 28      July 23, 2007

In both cities, some white parents had sued to have the desegregation plans overturned.

Leaders of civil rights groups and desegregation advocates condemned the decision as a blow to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown decision said that racially separate schools are inherently unequal.

The contending opinions and commentary of the Justices was marked by sharp exchanges. "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," said Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion. Roberts said the majority opinion was more faithful to the Brown decision.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens called Roberts' invocation of Brown "a cruel irony" that "rewrites the history of one of this court's most important decisions."

"It is not often in law that so few have so quickly changed so much," said Justice Breyer in a dissenting opinion. "This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret."

Writing in support of the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said that the dissenting opinion would "constitutionalize today's faddish social theories."

Seattle Urban League president James Kelly said the decision, "harkens back to the old law of separate but equal, which of course isn't equal."

In 1977, under threat of a lawsuit by the NAACP and civil rights groups, the Seattle school board began "voluntary" busing to desegregate the 47,000-student system. The plan was ended in 1997 in face of an antibusing campaign led by prominent businessmen.

An "Open Choice" plan, began in 1998, aimed at achieving student ratios in each school close to that in the city—60 percent oppressed minorities and 40 percent white. It allowed students to attend any school of their choice. Where demand exceeded space, siblings of current students got priority. In other cases a "diversity tiebreaker" favored students whose race tipped a school toward the 60-40 ratio. This tiebreaker, which the board suspended in 2002, was ruled against by the Supreme Court.

In 1973 a federal court found the Louisville school system to be segregated. That led to court-ordered busing from 1975 to 1984. The system remained under court supervision until 2000. The 97,000-student system is 34 percent Black—the rest predominantly white.

The plan that was overturned by the high court aimed to obtain a minimum of 15 percent and a maximum of 50 percent Black enrollment in each school with the exception of pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and some magnet schools.  
 
 
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