U.S. v. Board of School Com'rs of City of Indianapolis, Ind.
| Decision Date | 16 July 1976 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 75-1730,s. 75-1730 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, Donny Brurell Buckley and Alycia Marquese Buckley, by their parent and next friend Ruby L. Buckley, on behalf of themselves and all Negro school age children residing in the area served by the original defendants herein, Intervening Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. BOARD OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS OF CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, et al., Defendants-Appellants. through 75-1737, 75-1765, 75-1936, 75-1964, 75-1965 and 75-2007. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., Donald P. Bogard, Asst. Atty. Gen., William M. Evans, Lewis C. Bose, Donald A. Schabel, Richard D. Wagner, Richard L. Brown, Charles W. Hunter, Indianapolis, Ind., William O. Schreckengast, Beech Grove, Ind., Lawrence McTurnan, Charles G. Reeder Robert P. Kassing, Gary R. Landau, Indianapolis, Ind., for defendants-appellants.
R. Davy Eaglesfield III, John O. Moss, John Preston Ward, Charles D. Kelso, James B. Capehart, Indianapolis, Ind., Samuel J. Flanagan, Jr., Civ. Rights Div., Dept. of Justice, Brian K. Landsberg, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., James B. Young, U. S. Atty., Indianapolis, Ind., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before FAIRCHILD, Chief Judge, and SWYGERT and TONE, Circuit Judges.
This is the third review of successive desegregation orders in a suit brought in 1968 by the United States against the Board of School Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis. The issue before us, as in Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974), concerns the appropriate exercise of federal equity jurisdiction. The district court, --- F.Supp. ----, found two violations of the Equal Protection Clause upon which it based the interdistrict remedies that are at issue on this appeal. The first was the failure of the state to extend the boundaries of the Indianapolis Public School District (IPS) when the municipal government of Indianapolis and other governmental units in Marion County, Indiana, were replaced by a consolidated county-wide government called Uni-Gov. The second violation was the confinement of all public housing projects (in which 98 percent of the residents are black) to areas within the boundaries of the City of Indianapolis.
On the basis of these violations the district court determined that a limited interdistrict remedy would be appropriate. The court ordered a transfer of black IPS students in grades 1-9 to suburban school districts (except two) within Marion County in such number as to cause the total enrollment of pupils in the suburban schools to be 15 percent black after the transfer. The district court also enjoined the Housing Authority of the City of Indianapolis from constructing any future public housing projects inside the boundaries of IPS and from renovating a housing project known as Lockefield Gardens for other than elderly persons.
On the basis of the entire record and the findings of the district court, we affirm.
The history of this litigation was described in our most recent opinion, United States v. Board of School Commissioners of City of Indianapolis, Indiana, 503 F.2d 68, 71-75 (7th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 929, 95 S.Ct. 1654, 44 L.Ed.2d 86, nonetheless, a brief summary is appropriate.
There have been four phases in this suit. In Indianapolis I the sole issue was racial segregation within the schools in the Indianapolis Public School District. Judge Dillin, after noting Indiana's official policy of school segregation until 1949, reviewed the conduct of IPS since that year and found the school district guilty of de jure segregation. United States v. Board of School Commissioners of City of Indianapolis, Indiana, 332 F.Supp. 655 (S.D.Ind.1971).
The court then ordered the United States to add as defendants other school districts in the metropolitan area in order to provide the proper setting for consideration of the appropriateness of a metropolitan remedy. The Government complied with the order. The Buckley plaintiffs, representing a class of black school children, were granted permission to intervene. They joined as defendants several state officials and additional school districts.
On appeal this court affirmed, finding that there was a clear pattern of purposeful discrimination in the gerrymandering of school attendance zones, in the segregation of faculty, in the use of optional attendance zones among the schools, and in school construction and placement a "(P)attern of decision making which . . . reflected a successful plan for de jure segregation." United States v. Board of School Commissioners of City of Indianapolis, Indiana, 474 F.2d 81, 84-88 (7th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 413 U.S. 920, 93 S.Ct. 3066, 37 L.Ed.2d 1041.
After remand from this court, the district court in Indianapolis II took up the problem of fashioning a remedy. One of the issues at trial was the constitutionality of the Uni-Gov Act. The court ordered a remedy without reaching this question. The court found that a meaningful permanent desegregation plan could not be accomplished within the boundaries of IPS, based upon evidence that when the percentage of blacks in a given school approaches 25 to 30 percent white flight accelerates, resulting in resegregation. United States v. Board of School Commissioners of City of Indianapolis, Indiana, 368 F.Supp. 1191 (S.D.Ind.1973). The court further found that the State of Indiana, its officials, and agencies by various acts and omissions promoted segregation and inhibited desegregation within IPS, so that the state which was ultimately charged under the Indiana law with the operation of its public schools had a continuing affirmative duty to desegregate the Indianapolis school system.
The court then ordered a broad interdistrict remedy which encompassed the entire metropolitan area including school districts outside of Marion County. The court held it was the duty of the state, through its General Assembly, to devise its own plan of desegregation, with the understanding that if it failed to do so within a reasonable time the court would have the authority and duty to formulate its own plan. As interim relief, the court ordered IPS to effect pupil reassignments for the 1973-1974 school year sufficient to bring the number of black pupils in each of its elementary schools to approximately 15 percent.
In response to the court's order for the interim relief, IPS submitted a desegregation plan. The court rejected it as inadequate and appointed a two-member commission to develop a plan. This plan was approved by the court and has been implemented. The district court also ordered IPS to transfer to certain defendant school districts a number of black pupils equal to 5 percent of the 1972-1973 enrollment of each transferee school (with certain exceptions). (This portion of the order was stayed incident to subsequent proceedings.) United States v. Board of School Commissioners of City of Indianapolis, Indiana, 368 F.Supp. 1223 (S.D.Ind.1973).
In Indianapolis III the court issued a supplementary opinion in which Judge Dillin proffered recommendations to the State of Indiana for implementing a desegregation plan. In response, the General Assembly adopted a bill that provides for the adjustment of tuition among the transferor and the transferee districts and for the reimbursement of transportation costs by the state whenever a federal or state court makes certain findings. 1
On appeal from Indianapolis II and Indianapolis III this court, besides affirming the commission's interim IPS plan, affirmed the district court's holding that the State of Indiana, as the ultimate body charged with responsibility of operating its public schools, "(H)as an affirmative duty to assist the IPS Board in desegregating IPS within its boundaries . . . ." United States v. Board of School Commissioners, 503 F.2d 68, 80 (7th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 929, 95 S.Ct. 1654, 44 L.Ed.2d 86. This court, however, in accordance with Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974), reversed the district court's order pertaining to the interdistrict remedy as to those school districts outside of Uni-Gov (Marion County). That portion of the order pertaining to the interdistrict remedy within Uni-Gov was vacated and remanded for further proceedings. We said:
The district court should determine whether the establishment of the Uni-Gov boundaries without a like reestablishment of IPS boundaries warrants an inter-district remedy within Uni-Gov in accordance with Milliken. 503 F.2d at 86.
On remand, in Indianapolis IV, --- F.Supp. --- the district court held another evidentiary hearing on Uni-Gov and housing practices within Marion County. In regard to Uni-Gov Judge Dillin found:
The evidence clearly shows that at the time of the passage of the Uni-Gov Act in 1969, various annexation plans and school consolidation plans had bogged down on the local level because of the aforementioned opposition of the suburban school corporations within Marion County, and their patrons. . . . When the General Assembly (which under state and federal law had a duty to alleviate segregation in IPS) expressly eliminated the schools from consideration under Uni-Gov, it signaled its lack of concern with the whole problem and thus inhibited desegregation (sic ) IPS.
Referring to the suburban Marion County units of government, he stated:
They have resisted school consolidation, they resisted civil annexation so long as civil annexation carried school annexation with it, they ceased resisting civil annexation only when the Uni-Gov act made it clear that the schools would not be involved. Surburban Marion County has resisted the erection of public housing projects outside IPS territory, suburban Marion County officials have refused to cooperate with HUD on the location of such...
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