Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District

Citation24 L.Ed.2d 477,90 S.Ct. 608,396 U.S. 290
Decision Date14 January 1970
Docket NumberNo. 944,No. 972,944,972
PartiesRobert CARTER et al. v. WEST FELICIANA PARISH SCHOOL BOARD et al. Derek Jerome SINGLETON et al. v. JACKSON MUNICIPAL SEPARATE SCHOOL DISTRICT et al
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

See 396 U.S. 1053, 90 S.Ct. 705.

On Petitions for writs of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Richard B. Sobol, Murphy W. Bell, Robert F. Collins, Norman C. Amaker, and Melvyn Zarr, for petitioners Robert Carter and others.

Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit III, Norman C. Amaker, Melvyn Zarr, Oscar W. Adams, Jr., John H. Ruffin, Jr., and Earl M. Johnson, for petitioners Derek Jerome Singleton and others.

John F. Ward, Jr., for respondents West Feliciana Parish School Board and others.

Robert C. Cannada and Thomas H. Watkins, for respondents Jackson Municipal Separate School District and others.

Hardy Lott, for respondent Marshall County Board of Education.

Reid B. Barnes, for respondent Jefferson County Board of Education.

Edwin L. Brobston, for respondents Board of Education of City of Bessemer and others.

Palmer Pillans and George F. Wood, for respondents Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County and others.

Frank C. Jones and Wallace Miller, Jr., for respondents Bibb County board of Education and others.

H. A. Aultman, for respondent Houston County Board of Education.

W. Fred Turner, for respondent Board of Public Instruction of Bay County.

Sam T. Dell, Jr., for respondents Board of Public Instruction of Alachua County and others.

Solicitor General Griswold, for the United States, amicus curiae.

John F. Ward, Jr., for Louisiana Teachers Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Rivers Buford, Jr., and Gerald Mager, for State Board of Education of Florida, amicus curiae.

PER CURIAM.

Insofar as the Court of Appeals authorized deferral of student desegregation beyond February 1, 1970, that court misconstrued our holding in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29. Accordingly, the petitions for writs of certiorari are granted, the judgments of the Court of Appeals are reversed, and the cases remanded to that court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. The judgments in these cases are to issue forthwith.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, with whom Mr. Justice WHITE joins, concurring.

I join the Court's order. I agree that the action of the Court of Appeals in these cases does not fulfill the requirements of our recent decision in Alexander v. Holmes School Board, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, and accordingly that the judgments below cannot stand. However, in fairness to the Court of Appeals and to the parties, and with a view to giving further guidance to litigants in future cases of this kind, I consider that something more is due to be said respecting the intended effect of the Alexander decision. Since the Court has not seen fit to do so, I am constrained to set forth at least may own understanding of the procedure to be followed in these cases. Because of the shortness of the time available, I must necessarily do this in a summary way.

The intent of Alexander, as I see it, was that the burden in actions of this type should be shifted from plaintiffs, seeking redress for a denial of constitutional rights, to defendant school boards. What this means is that upon a prima facie showing of noncompliance with this Court's holding in Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968), sufficient to demonstrate a likelihood of success at trial, plaintiffs may apply for immediate relief that will at once extirpate any lingering vestiges of a constitutionally prohibited dual school system. Cf. Magnum Import Co. v. Coty, 262 U.S. 159, 43 S.Ct. 531, 67 L.Ed. 922 (1923).

Such relief, I believe it was intended, should consist of an order providing measures for achieving disestablishment of segreagated school systems, and should, if appropriate, include provisions for pupil and teacher reassignments, rezoning, or any other steps necessary to accomplish the desegregation of the public school system as required by Green. Graduated implementation of the relief is no longer constitutionally permissible. Such relief shall become effective immediately after the courts, acting with dispatch, have formulated and approved an order that will achieve complete disestablishment of all aspects of a segregated public school system.

It was contemplated, I think, that in determining the character of such relief the courts may consider submissions of the parties or any recommendations of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare that may exist or may request proposals from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. If Department recommendations are already available the school districts are to bear the burden of demonstrating beyond question, after a hearing, the unworkability of the proposals, and if such proposals are found unworkable, the courts shall devise measures to provide the required relief. It would suffice that such measures will tend to accomplish the goals set forth in Green, and, if they are less than educationally perfect, proposals for amendments...

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  • Spangler v. Pasadena City Board of Education
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Central District of California
    • March 12, 1970
    ...v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19, 20, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed. 2d 19 (1969); Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477 (January 20, 1970). 21. School officials are obliged under the Fourteenth Amendment to attempt to make an equita......
  • Crawford v. Board of Education
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • June 28, 1976
    ...'at once.' (Alexander v. Board of Education (1969) 396 U.S. 19, 20, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19; Carter v. West Feliciana School Bd. (1969) 396 U.S. 290, 291, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477.) These pronouncements, however, 'were directed toward recalcitrant school boards that had stubbornly se......
  • Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia
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    • January 10, 1972
    ...Municipal Separate School District, 419 F.2d 1211 (5th Cir. 1970), rev'd. in part sub nom. Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477 (1970). In the Richmond metropolitan area, assignment under the current school division arrangement creates a "......
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    ...v. Jackson Municipal Separate School Dist., 419 F.2d 1211 (CA5 1969) rev'd in part sub nom. Carter v. West Feliciana Parish School Board, 396 U.S. 290, 90 S.Ct. 608, 24 L.Ed.2d 477 (1970); Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School Dist., 426 F.2d 1364 (CA5), modified, 430 F.2d 368 (CA5......
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