WASHINGTON, June 28 — With competing blocs of justices claiming the mantle of Brown v. Board of Education [1954], a bitterly divided Supreme Court declared today that public school systems cannot seek to achieve or maintain integration through measures that take explicit account of a student’s race.
Voting 5 to 4, the court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., invalidated programs in Seattle and metropolitan Louisville, Ky., that sought to maintain school-by-school diversity by limiting transfers on the basis of race or using race as a “tiebreaker” for admission to particular schools. The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Chief Justice Roberts said.
Both programs had been upheld by lower federal courts and were similar to plans in place in hundreds of school districts around the country. Chief Justice Roberts said such programs were “directed only to racial balance, pure and simple,” a goal he said was forbidden by the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.
My, my! Have times changed.
Heard an AA woman say on TV this AM that she didn't want her kids bussed around.
Read what Juan Williams of the NY Times has to say about it (his conclusion in the continuation).
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