In a case that could determine the future of the Los Angeles Unified School District's popular magnet schools, attorneys met in court Tuesday to argue whether race and ethnicity are valid criteria for determining whether students are selected for the prized spots.
Attorneys for a group that opposes affirmative action contend that California voters rejected race as a factor in admitting students when they passed Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that bans preferential treatment in public programs on the basis of race or ethnicity. Appearing before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Paul Gutman, the lawyers argued that the school district should find a racially neutral way to administer magnet schools and achieve diversity.
"We're not seeking to end these programs, but we are seeking to end the illegal means by which kids get access to these programs," said Paul J. Beard II, an attorney for the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, which brought the case. "Even if you assume that the district has an obligation to integrate, whatever obligations that might have existed in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s has to yield to the voters intent" in passing Proposition 209.
But L.A. Unified and its supporters maintain that the district is still under a 1981 federal court order to desegregate schools and that the voluntary magnet system, in which about 54,000 of the district's 708,000 students are enrolled, has achieved a modicum of success in providing black, white, Asian and Latino students access to quality education.
Moreover, they argue that Proposition 209 specifically exempted court desegregation orders in force at the time the initiative became law.
"It's disingenuous to argue that court order is not in force today," said Catherine E. Lhamon, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which has intervened in the case in support of the school district. "The magnet program is more oversubscribed and more popular than ever."
All of the parties are seeking summary judgment -- a ruling in their favor without going to trial. Gutman took the arguments under submission and said he would issue a ruling in late October. Any outcome is likely to be appealed, though, meaning a trial is probable at some point, attorneys said.
