Brumfield v. Dodd, Civ. A. No. 71-1316.

• Decision Date: 02 December 1975
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 71-1316.
• Citation: 405 F. Supp. 338
• Parties: Oless BRUMFIELD, as next friend of Ervin Brumfield, et al. v. William J. DODD, Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Louisiana, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

405 F. Supp. 338

Oless BRUMFIELD, as next friend of Ervin Brumfield, et al. v. William J. DODD, Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Louisiana, et al.

Civ. A. No. 71-1316.

United States District Court, E. D. Louisiana.

December 2, 1975.

George M. Strickler, Jr., New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs.

J. Stanley Pottinger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Alexander C. Ross, Thomas M. Keeling, Paul F. Hancock, Lawrence L. Newton, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Gerald J. Gallinghouse, U. S. Atty., Leonard P. Avery, Asst. U. S. Atty., New Orleans, La., for intervenors.

William J. Guste, Jr., Louisiana Atty. Gen., Warren E. Mouledoux, First Asst. Atty. Gen., William P. Curry, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendants Louis J. Michot (substituted for William J. Dodd), Louisiana Superintendent of Public Education; Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (substituted for Louisiana State Board of Education and its individual members); and Mary Evelyn Parker, Louisiana State Treasurer.

James J. Thornton, Jr., Johnston, Johnston & Thornton, Shreveport, La., for defendants Sam L. Ledbetter and Jackson Parish School Board.

Woodrow W. Erwin, Dist. Atty., Franklinton, La., for defendants Earl Brown, James Bailey and Washington Parish School Board.

Julian P. Rodrigue, Asst. Dist. Atty., Covington, La., for defendants Cyprian T. Schoen, and St. Tammany Parish School Board.

Thompson L. Clarke, Dist. Atty., St Joseph, La., for defendants Charles E. Thompson and The Tensas Parish School Board.

Hal R. Henderson, Dist. Atty., Arcadia, La., for defendants Hugh W. Whatley, Claiborne Parish School Board, M. A. Phillips and Madison Parish School Board.

Before WISDOM, Circuit Judge, HEEBE, Chief District Judge, and GORDON, District Judge.

HEEBE, Chief Judge.

This is a civil action seeking to enjoin the Louisiana State Department of Education from providing books, school material, and funds for student transportation to students attending all-white, segregated private schools in the State of Louisiana. The suit also requests that state statutes providing for such assistance to private schools be declared unconstitutional as violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Because the complaint seeks an injunction against state officials on the grounds that state statutes are unconstitutional, 28 U.S.C. § 2281, a three-judge court was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284 on October 14, 1971. By agreement of the parties, the case has been submitted for decision on the basis of depositions, interrogatories and memoranda of counsel. The Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiffs are black citizens of Louisiana whose minor children attend the public schools of Madison, Claiborne, Jackson, St. Tammany, Tensas, and Washington Parishes. Plaintiffs seek in their complaint to represent a class composed of all black students attending public school in the State of Louisiana and their parents.

2. At the time this suit was filed defendant William J. Dodd was the Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Louisiana, the elected head of the Louisiana State Department of Education. While the suit was pending, Mr. Dodd was succeeded in office by Louis J. Michot. The Court has allowed the substitution of defendant Michot for defendant Dodd pursuant to Rule 25(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The Louisiana State Board of Education, originally made a defendant in this suit, has been replaced under Art. 8, § 3 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (hereinafter referred to as the "State Board"). The Court has allowed the substitution of the State Board for the original State Board of Education under Rule 25(d).

3. Defendant Mary Evelyn Parker is the Treasurer of the State of Louisiana.

4. Also made defendants in this action are the superintendents and school boards of the parishes in which the plaintiffs reside and in which their children attend public schools: Madison, Claiborne, Jackson, St. Tammany, Tensas and Washington Parishes.

5. Pursuant to Art. 8, § 3 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 and La. R.S. 17:351 and 352, the State Board controls and regulates the distribution of textbooks, library books and school materiel to school children in the state. The mode of distribution of such books and school supplies is as follows:

Under La.R.S. 17:351, the state legislature annually determines the amount of state tax money which will be allotted for the purchase of textbooks, library books and school supplies. (Deposition of Robert Horneman, State Department of Education, Department of Textbooks and Libraries, pp. 4-5)

Based upon the previous academic year's registration of both public and private school students, the State Department of Education makes a monetary allotment to each parish school board for textbooks and school supplies. (Answer D to plaintiffs' first interrogatories to State Department of Education; Horneman Deposition, p. 5)

On or before April 1 of each year, each parish school board, through its superintendent, requisitions textbooks, library books and school supplies for the next academic year. Textbooks are selected from a catalog of state-approved textbooks and are ordered on a standard textbook order form provided by the State Department of Education. (Horneman Deposition, pp. 5-6; Deposition of Harvey V. Gardiner, Director of Textbook Depository of Louisiana State Department of Education, pp. 4-5)

Each requisition by a parish school board is based upon the requisitions of the individual schools within the parish, both public and private. (Gardiner Deposition, pp. 4-5; Horneman Deposition, pp. 5-6) The school board requisitions do not distinguish between textbooks and supplies destined for public and nonpublic schools. State Department of Education officials receive no information from parish school boards showing the number of nonpublic school students receiving state books and supplies or the dollar value of such books and supplies furnished to nonpublic school students. (Horneman Deposition, pp. 8-9)

The requisitioned textbooks are purchased by the State Department of Education and are distributed by the State Textbook Depository to the individual school boards which in turn distribute books to individual schools in the parish.

On occasion, private schools have gone directly to the State Board of Education to requisition textbooks, bypassing the parish school board. (Horneman Deposition at p. 7)

The State Department of Education has established no guidelines or standards to determine the eligibility of nonpublic school students for receipt of state books and school supplies. (Horneman Deposition, passim)

The dollar value of books requisitioned by any school in a given year does not reflect the value of books actually used by students in that school because books are not returned at the end of a year, but are accumulated. Accordingly, though a parish's textbook allotment may be $5.00/student/year; the value of the textbooks used by a high school student may be $25.00 or more. (Deposition of Herbert Halbach, Superintendent Madison Parish School Board, p. 11)

6. Under La.R.S. 17:158, parish school boards may provide transportation for children attending "any school" who live more than one mile from such school. The State Department of Education underwrites the cost of such transportation by allocating to each parish on an annual basis the base salary of school bus drivers employed by the parish and the operational expenses of buses operated by the parish. (Deposition of Ronald W. Carrier, State Department of Education, Director of Local School Services Systems, pp. 5-7) Parish school boards each year submit a request for transportation funds based upon the number of students in the parish eligible for transportation under La.R.S. 17:158. No distinction is made in such requests between funds requested for the transportation of public and nonpublic students. (Carrier Deposition, pp. 9-10)

7. The practical effect of the distribution systems for state-owned books and school supplies and state funds for transportation is that officials of the State Department of Education have no control as to which nonpublic schools benefit from the distribution of state-owned books, supplies, and funds for transportation. The State Board of Education has no policy of prohibiting the distribution of state books and school supplies to racially segregated private schools, nor does any policy of the State Board prohibit the use of state transportation funds for the benefit of students attending such segregated schools. (Carrier Deposition, pp. 18-19; Horneman Deposition, passim)

8. Prior to the 1969-70 school year, public school boards throughout the State of Louisiana, including defendant local school boards, operated dual racially segregated systems of pupil assignment. In most cases, black students who attended formerly all-white schools did so under the exercise of "freedom of choice" options under court orders. No white students were assigned to previously all-black schools. The large majority of black students attended traditionally segregated all-black schools. During 1969 and 1970, as a result of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, federal district courts ordered most Louisiana school boards, including the defendant boards, to assign students and faculty to their schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis and in particular to eliminate or integrate all-black schools.

9. Coinciding with these orders requiring massive integration, and as direct result thereof, numerous segregated, private schools were organized in order to allow white students to avoid court-ordered integration, infra. These schools, and other existing private schools, served as an escape valve for white students unwilling to attend fully integrated public schools. In...