Delaware State Board of Education v. Evans Alexis Pont School District v. Evans
| Citation | 64 L.Ed.2d 278,100 S.Ct. 1862,446 U.S. 923 |
| Decision Date | 28 April 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-671,No.78-672,78-671,78-672 |
| Parties | DELAWARE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION v. Brenda EVANS et al. ALEXIS I. du PONT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. Brenda EVANS et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
See 447 U.S. 916, 100 S.Ct. 3004.
In 1971, respondents in these cases instituted an action seeking the desegregation of the schools in the city of Wilmington, Del. The litigation has now culminated in a countywide remedy more Draconian than any ever approved by this Court. The order provides for the dissolution of the county's 11 independent school boards, most of which were locally elected. In their place, the District Court "created" a single countywide school system, to be run by court-appointed officials for five years. Within this judicial school district, which comprises in excess of 60% of all the public school students in the State of Delaware, every single student will be reassigned away from his or her local school for a period of no less than three years and for as long as nine years. The plan is designed to accomplish a racial balance in each and every school, in every grade, in all of the former 11 districts, mirroring the racial balance of the total area involved.
On petitions for writs of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The petitions for writs of certiorari are denied.
The three-judge District Court which initially found a desegregation remedy to be warranted, expressly found that 10 of the 11 county school districts had established fully unitary school systems after this Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954). Evans v. Buchanan, 393 F.Supp. 428, 437, and n. 19 (D.C.Del.), summarily- aff'd, 423 U.S. 963, 96 S.Ct. 381, 46 L.Ed.2d 293 (1975). Only the school district in the city of Wilmington was found to have engaged in discriminatory conduct—conduct which the court did not find to be purposeful.* The court did find, however, that the acts of other governmental entities resulted in an interdistrict violation. I think this Court should grant certiorari to review the District Court's imposition of this remedy, even accepting as settled the finding that there was an interdistrict violation warranting an interdistrict remedy.
One principle that has been continually emphasized in the desegregation opinions of this Court is that the "scope of the remedy" formulated by a district court must be tailored to fit "the nature and extent of the constitutional violation." Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1, 16, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1276, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971). In order to effectively fulfill this mandate, we have made clear that district courts must "determine how much incremental segregative effect [the constitutional] violations had on the racial distribution of the . . . school population as . . . compared to what it would have been in the absence of such constitutional violations." Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman, 433 U.S. 406, 420, 97 S.Ct. 2766, 2775, 53 L.Ed.2d 851 (1977). Without such a finding, it would not be possible for a judge to fulfill the equitable limitations commanded by Swann.
In this case, however, the courts have ignored Swann and- Dayton, and held that as a matter of law, no such findings were required. The District Court explicitly acknowledged that it did not apply this standard in adopting the remedy in issue. The court stated that it was "fully cognizant" that the submitted plans "were formulated without exacting consideration of whether they returned the Northern New Castle County schools to the precise position they would have assumed 'but for' the found constitutional violations." 447 F.Supp. 982, 1009 (Del.1978). The Court of Appeals on review again conceded that the District Court did not make the inquiry identified by Dayton but nevertheless found this omission excusable because Wilmington had previously been subject to de jure segregation.
This Court has never held that a remedy dismantling local education or devising a scheme of total racial balance is warranted simply upon a finding of de jure segregation, and in fact, Swann held precisely to the contrary. Whatever the nature of the constitutional violation, the standard articulated in Dayton, as well as in the predecessors to Dayton, requires the District Court to impose changes in local education only to the extent necessary to cure the violation. The Court of Appeals' express departure from the precedents of this Court certainly warrants review.
Our cases indicate that the need for specific findings is particularly compelling when the district court seeks to impose a remedy curtailing local control of education. The District Court here has chosen such a remedy, actually abolishing the county's system of education and disenfranchising the voters who formerly retained popular control of education. This has been mandated even though no court has found that these local school boards have engaged in any purposeful discrimination since 1954. While on my assumption the absence of purpose does not negate the need for an interdistrict remedy in this case, the conduct of the boards is still relevant to the formulation of that interdistrict remedy. When the "nature of the violation" does not include purposeful discrimination on- the part of the school boards, I am not convinced that a truly "equitable" remedy would abolish those governmental entities that had not been found to purposefully participate in the perpetration of the violations. I had thought that Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974), would forcefully preclude district courts from imposing such a remedy without the most exhaustive comparison of the nature of the violation and the need for this form of disestablishment of local government.
In Milliken, this Court declined to permit the federal courts to impose a remedy of this nature without the most exacting showing of necessity. The Court emphasized that "local control over the educational process affords citizens an opportunity to participate in decisionmaking, permits the structuring of school programs to fit local needs, and encourages 'experimentation, innovation, and a healthy competition for educational excellence.' " Id., at 742, 94 S.Ct., at 3126. The Court not only emphasized these important benefits of local control, but also recognized the inability of courts and judges to assume that role, noting that "[t]...
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Coalition to Save Our Children v. BD. OF EDUC., Civ. A. No. 1816-1822 MMS.
...as a 10-12 grade center. Evans v. Buchanan, 447 F.Supp. 982 (D.Del.), aff'd, 582 F.2d 750 (3d Cir.1978), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 923, 100 S.Ct. 1862, 64 L.Ed.2d 278 (1980) (cited hereinafter as "Evans The court chose the 9-3 plan over a 10-2 plan favored by State authorities because the 9-3 ......
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Evans v. Buchanan, Civ. A. No. 1816-1822.
...provided for ancillary remedial relief. 447 F.Supp. 982 (D.Del.), aff'd, 582 F.2d 750 (3d Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 923, 100 S.Ct. 1862, 64 L.Ed.2d 278 (1980). Following issuance of the secondary remedial decree, the Delaware Legislature, in February 1978, approved a four-district ......
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Liddell v. State of Mo.
...640 F.2d 782, 789-790 (6th Cir.1980); Evans v. Buchanan, 582 F.2d 750, 767-769 (3d Cir.1978) (en banc), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 923, 100 S.Ct. 1862, 64 L.Ed.2d 278 (1980); United States v. Texas, 447 F.2d 441, 448 (5th Cir.1971); United States v. Jefferson County Bd. of Educ., 380 F.2d 385, ......
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United States v. Board of Educ. of City of Chicago
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