Court to Revisit Race in Schools
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up two cases that could mark a historic shift in the role of race in education and spell the end of official efforts to integrate the nation's public schools.
The justices said they would hear appeals from parents in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., who say it is unconstitutional for officials to consider race when deciding which school a student will attend.
The cities adopted voluntary integration programs in recent years that put limits on how many white or black students may be enrolled in some schools.
The Seattle and Louisville cases could put the court on the opposite side of an old issue. Having told school officials in the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that they must desegregate their classrooms, the high court will now consider whether the Constitution forbids official efforts to maintain integration.
A ruling outlawing such efforts would have a wide effect on schools that continue to use race even after desegregation orders have expired.
The Los Angeles Unified School District uses magnet schools to achieve integration, but it does so partly by enrolling students based on their race or ethnicity.
Just three years ago, the court upheld affirmative action in colleges and universities, but two new conservative justices have joined the court since then. Monday's announcement is the second this year that could indicate a shift to the right in a major area of law. The court agreed to hear a case this fall that will determine whether Congress can outlaw a late-term abortion procedure.
Beginning with the Reagan era of the 1980s, conservatives have insisted it is unconstitutional for the government to use a person's race as a factor in hiring, awarding contracts, admitting college students, or, in this instance, assigning students to public schools.
In 2003, however, the Supreme Court dealt conservatives a defeat in a University of Michigan law school case. The court, in a 5-4 decision, said higher education had a "compelling" need to consider a student's race if it was to maintain diversity in classes.
That decision was written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired in February.
Her replacement, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., is seen as likely to take a more conservative stand on race and affirmative action. In 1985, as a lawyer in President Reagan's Justice Department, he said he was "particularly proud" of the administration's efforts to persuade the Supreme Court that "racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed."
