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In support of the third benefit, the District cites findings that minority students in fully integrated schools often perform better academically and are more likely to find work in an integrated workplace. Id. Roberts provides the following string citation: Parents Involved in Cmty. Three years after that decision was handed down, the Governor of Arkansas ordered state militia to block the doors of a white schoolhouse so that black children could not enter. Id., at 498. Justice Breyer nonetheless relies on the good intentions and motives of the school districts, stating that he has found no case that repudiated this constitutional asymmetry between that which seeks to exclude and that which seeks to include members of minority races. Post, at 29 (emphasis in original). of Los Angeles, 458 U. S. 527, 535536 (1982) ([S]tate courts of California continue to have an obligation under state law to order segregated school districts to use voluntary desegregation techniques, whether or not there has been a finding of intentional segregation. 294 F.3d 1085 (9th Cir. (We consider only the ninth grade since only students entering that class were subject to the tiebreaker, and because the plan was not in place long enough to change the composition of an entire school.) The Sixth Circuit affirmed. In light of the evident risk of a return to school systems that are in fact (though not in law) resegregated, many school districts have felt a need to maintain or to extend their integration efforts. To Seattle School Dist. 458 U. S., at 472, n.15. 3 Seattle School Dist. In a typical year, say, 1995, about 20,000 potential high school students participated. The dissent attempts to buttress the integration interest by claiming that it follows a fortiori from the interest this Court recognized as compelling in Grutter. The Equal Protection Clause, ratified following the Civil War, has always distinguished in practice between state action that excludes and thereby subordinates racial minorities and state action that seeks to bring together people of all races. appeals for the sixth circuit. B1, B5. Such measures may include strategic site selection of new schools; drawing attendance zones with general recognition of neighborhood demographics; allocating resources for special programs; recruiting students and faculty in a targeted fashion; and tracking enrollments, performance, and other statistics by race. The Court likewise paid heed to societal practices, local expectations, and practical consequences by looking to the established usages, customs and traditions of the people, and with a view to the promotion of their comfort, and the preservation of the public peace and good order. Ibid. Post, at 2829. (rejecting argument that strict scrutiny should be applied only to classifications that disadvantage minorities, stating [r]acial and ethnic distinctions of any sort are inherently suspect and thus call for the most exacting judicial examination). In most cases, there either will or will not have been a state constitutional amendment, state statute, local ordinance, or local administrative policy explicitly requiring separation of the races. To Crawford? 1? The parties and their amici dispute whether racial diversity in schools in fact has a marked impact on test scores and other objective yardsticks or achieves intangible socialization benefits. [Footnote 11] But see Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U. S. 547, 610 (1990) (We are a Nation not of black and white alone, but one teeming with divergent communities knitted together with various traditions and carried forth, above all, by individuals) (OConnor, J., dissenting). Scholars have differing opinions as to whether educational benefits arise from racial balancing. However, Roberts considers that this interest is not compelling and that the use of race for this goal is not narrowly tailored, it is instead used for racial balancing, which is unconstitutional. We defend only the validity of the statute that enables the Topeka Board of Education to determine its own course). See Part II, supra, at 2137. If todays dissent said it was adhering to the views expressed in the separate opinions in Gratz and Grutter, see Gratz, 539 U. S., at 281 (Breyer, J., concurring in judgment); id., at 282 (Stevens, J., dissenting); id., at 291 (Souter, J., dissenting); id., at 298 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting); Grutter, supra, at 344 (Ginsburg, J., concurring), that would be understandable, and likely within the traditionto be invoked, in my view, in rare instancesthat permits us to maintain our own positions in the face of stare decisis when fundamental points of doctrine are at stake. Hist. 2, App. 2005) (Parents IV). Dawkins & Braddock 401403; Wells & Crain 550. Prior to Grutter, the courts of appeals rejected as unconstitutional attempts to implement race-based assignment planssuch as the plans at issue herein primary and secondary schools. In Louisville, Kentucky, the Jefferson County Public Schools voluntarily implemented a system of student assignments that set quota percentages for African-American students in each school. Because the referendum would have prohibited the adoption of a school-integration plan that involved mandatory busing, and because it would have imposed a special burden on school integration plans (plans that sought to integrate previously segregated schools), the Court found it unconstitutional. 1967) 227 N.E. 2d 729, which challenged the statute providing for elimination of racial imbalance in public schools for want of a substantial federal question. 389 U. S. 572). Who exactly is white and who is nonwhite? Id. 05915, at 37 (Each [Jefferson County] school has a designated geographic attendance area, which is called the resides area of the school[, and each] such school is the resides school for those students whose parents or guardians residence address is within the schools geographic attendance area); id., at 82 (All elementary students shall be assigned to the school which serves the area in which they reside); and Brief for Respondents in No. The District contends that its plan used the narrowest possible means to achieve is educational goals. For the 2006-2007 school year, the school district has suspended the tiebreaker pending litigation. It consequently held unconstitutional the use of race-based targets to govern admission to magnet schools. In the year 20052006, by which time the racial tiebreaker had not been used for several years, Franklins overall minority enrollment had risen to 90%. In these respects, the broad ranges are less like a quota and more like the kinds of useful starting points that this Court has consistently found permissible, even when they set boundaries upon voluntary transfers, and even when they are based upon a communitys general population. [28] He contrasted this circumstance to Grutter, where "the consideration of race was viewed as indispensable" in more than tripling minority representation at the law schoolfrom 4 to 14.5 percent. From a legal perspective, this case will test the limits of the Equal Protection Clause and demonstrate its application to secondary education, as compared to its application to higher education as was explained in Grutter and Gratz. No. in No. 1, a case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 2007, established the Seattle School District's racial tiebreaker plan as unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the Supreme Court must find jurisdiction in order to give an opinion on the equal protection claims, it is uncertain whether the Court will address this question in much detail. See, e.g., Armor & Rossell, Desegregation and Resegregation in the Public Schools, in Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America 239, 251 (A. Thernstrom & S. Thernstrom eds. It is well established that when a governmental policy is subjected to strict scrutiny, the government has the burden of proving that racial classifications are narrowly tailored measures that further compelling governmental interests. Johnson, supra, at 505 (quoting Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peńa, 515 U. S. 200, 227 (1995)). And to the extent the plurality opinion can be interpreted to foreclose consideration of these interests, I disagree with that reasoning. For the 20002001 school year, five of these schools were oversubscribedBallard, Nathan Hale, Roosevelt, Garfield, and Franklinso much so that 82 percent of incoming ninth graders ranked one of these schools as their first choice. In the cases before us it is noteworthy that the number of students whose assignment depends on express racial classifications is limited. 05915, p. 97. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. App. The importance of these differences is clear once one compares the present circumstances with other cases where one or more of these negative features are present. One schoolGarfieldis more or less in the center of Seattle. The Seattle case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. A. Croson Co., 488 U. S. 469, 493 (1989) (plurality opinion). I concur in the Chief Justices opinion so holding. The districts have also failed to show that they considered methods other than explicit racial classifications to achieve their stated goals. And their history reveals school district goals whose remedial, educational, and democratic elements are inextricably intertwined each with the others. Despite this decision, the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that the District use of race failed to meet the standards in Grutter and Gratz. It is well established that when the government distributes burdens or benefits on the basis of individual racial classifications, that action is reviewed under strict scrutiny. This Court in Adarand added that such classifications are constitutional only if they are narrowly tailored measures that further compelling governmental interests. Ibid. It reported that most districts92 of them, in factadopted desegregation policies that combined two or more highly race-conscious strategies, for example, rezoning or pairing. The Chief Justice delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, IIIA, and IIIC, concluding: 1. Project Renaissance again revised the boards racial guidelines. Primary and secondary schools are where the education of this Nations children begins, where each of us begins to absorb those values we carry with us to the end of our days. After preliminary rulings and an eventual victory for the plaintiffs in the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the District Court in July 1975 entered an order requiring desegregation. 2d 304: "[The law school's] policy makes clear there are many possible bases for diversity admissions, and provides examples of admittees who have lived or traveled widely abroad, are fluent in several languages, have overcome personal adversity and family hardship, have exceptional records of extensive community service, and have had successful careers in other fields." Is it not a fact that the very strength and fiber of our federal system is local self-government in those matters for which local action is competent? majority opinion by Chief Justice Roberts and in the The Courts decision in that case was a grievous error it took far too long to overrule. Limiting those options because of race may therefore be viewed as problematic for both parents and students. The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decisions in cases involving school districts in Seattle, Washington, and Louisville, Kentucky, seem to indicate that the United States is moving away from diversity in its public schools. Argued December 4, 2006Decided June 28, 2007* Respondent school districts voluntarily adopted student assignment plans that rely on race to determine which schools certain children We have found many. I am not certain just how the remainder of Justice Kennedys concerns affect the lawfulness of the Louisville program, for they seem to be failures of explanation, not of administration. [citation needed]. The Current Lawsuit, 2003 to the Present. A. Croson Co., 488 U. S. 469, 501. See, e.g., Part IB, supra. As to recruiting faculty on the basis of race, both cities have tried, but only as one part of a broader program. The districts also quote with approval an in-chambers opinion in which then-Justice Rehnquist made a suggestion to the same effect. 1, 149 Wash. 2d 660, 72 P.3d 151 (2003); 137 F.Supp. 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. v. Swann, 402 U. S. 43, 46 (1971) (no absolute prohibition against [the] use of mathematical ratios as a starting point); Swann, 402 U. S., at 2425 (approving the use of a ratio reflecting the racial composition of the whole school system as a useful starting point, but not as an inflexible requirement). In design and operation, the plans are directed only to racial balance, pure and simple, an objective this Court has repeatedly condemned as illegitimate. And my view was the rallying cry for the lawyers who litigated Brown. Justice Thomas recoils at the suggestion that black students can only learn if they are sitting next to white students. 264, 399400 (1821) (Marshall, C. 05915, p. 10; see also App. See McDaniel, 402 U. S., at 41 ([S]teps will almost invariably require that students be assigned differently because of their race. . The school districts have not carried their heavy burden of showing that the interest they seek to achieve justifies the extreme means they have chosendiscriminating among individual students based on race by relying upon racial classifications in making school assignments. The plan consequently redrew the racial guidelines, setting the boundaries at 15% to 50% black for all schools. Richmond v. J. See, e.g., J. Wilkinson, From Brown to Bakke 11 (1979) (Everyone understands that Brown v. Board of Education helped deliver the Negro from over three centuries of legal bondage); Black, The Lawfulness of the Segregation Decisions, 69 Yale L.J. Protection jurisprudence of this Court and the notion of a color-blind Constitution that this country has aspired for. Brief for Respondent at 3132. Accord, post, at 68 (Today, almost 50 years later, attitudes toward race in this Nation have changed dramatically. 05908, pp. See Welch 8391. 05908, at1617. See 426 F.3d, at 1208 (Bea, J., dissenting). Though the dissent admits to discomfort in applying strict scrutiny to these plans, it claims to have nonetheless applied that exacting standard. 417, 428429 287 N.E. 2d 438, 447448 (1972).