What was the decisn made at the Louisville and Seattle school integration cases?

The cases in Louisville (Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education) %26amp; Seattle (Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1) were merged for the Supreme Court of the United States case.





The court ruled that a child's race is not a compelling interest for student assignment and that schools cannot use race for student assignment.





The court said ';The student assignment plan of Seattle Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools does not meet the narrowly tailored and compelling interest requirements for a race-based assignment plan because it is used only to achieve racial balance. Public schools may not use race as the sole determining factor for assigning students to schools. Race-conscious objectives to achieve diverse school environment may be acceptable.';





In the 1970s, the urban Louisville Public School District was primarily African-American while the suburban Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) was primarily white. The school districts were forced to merge and implement forced busing under court order in the 1970s in order to desegregate the new merged school system. The court order was lifted in 2000 due to a lawsuit brought by African-American parents whose children were denied entry to a magnet school since their admission would have put the school outside of court ordered racial guidelines.





When a mother attempted to enroll her child in the elementary school closest to her home, his acceptance would have placed the school out of the schools guidelines regarding race and the mother was told he would not be admitted because he was white. She filed her original lawsuit against JCPS in 2002.





In July 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that this was discrimination based upon race and Chief Justice Roberts said ';The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.';





Since school assignments had already been made, JCPS will implement a new policy for the 2008-2009 school year.

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