United States v. Scotland Neck City Board of Education Cotton v. Scotland Neck City Board of Education 8212 130, 70 8212 187

• Decision Date: 22 June 1972
• Docket Number: Nos. 70,s. 70
• Citation: 33 L.Ed.2d 75,407 U.S. 484,92 S.Ct. 2214
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. SCOTLAND NECK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al. Pattie Black COTTON et al., Petitioners, v. SCOTLAND NECK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al. —130, 70—187
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

407 U.S. 484

92 S.Ct. 2214

33 L.Ed.2d 75

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v SCOTLAND NECK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

Pattie Black COTTON et al., Petitioners,

v. SCOTLAND NECK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION et al.

Nos. 70—130, 70—187.

Argued Feb. 29 and March 1, 1972.

Decided June 22, 1972. Syllabus A state statute authorized creation of a new school district for Scotland Neck, N.C., a city that was part of the larger Halifax County school district, then in the process of dismantling a dual school system. The District Court in this litigation instituted by the United States enjoined implementation of the statute as creating a refuge for white students and promoting school segregation in the county. The Court of Appeals reversed ruling that the statute's impact on dismantling the county dual system was minimal and that it should not be regarded as an alternative desegregation plan for the county since it was enacted by the legislature and not by the school board. Held: Whether the action affecting dismantling of a dual school system is initiated by the legislature or by the school board is immaterial, North Carolina State Board of Education v. Swann, 402 U.S. 43, 91 S.Ct 1284, 28 L.Ed.2d 586; the criterion is whether the dismantling is furthered or hindered by carving a new school district from the larger district having the dual school system, and a proposal that would impede the dismantling process may be enjoined. Wright v Council of City of Emporia, 407 U.S. 451, 92 S.Ct. 2196, 33 L.Ed.2d 51. Pp. 488—491. 442 F.2d 575, reversed. Lawrence G. Wallace, Washington, D.C., for the United States.

Page 485 Adam Stein, Charlotte, N.C., for Pattie Black Cotton and others. William T. Joyner, Raleigh, N.C., and C. Kitchin Josey, Scotland Neck, N.C., for Scotland Neck City Bd. of Ed. and others in both cases. djQ Mr. Justice STEWART delivered the opinion of the Court. The petitioners in these consolidated cases challenge the implementation of a North Carolina statute authorizing the creation of a new school district for Scotland Neck, a city which at the time of the statute's enactment was part of a larger school district then in the process of dismantling a dual school system. In a judgment entered the same day as its judgment in Council of City of Emporia v. Wright, 442 F.2d 570, a decision which we reverse today, 407 U.S. 451, 92 S.Ct. 2196, 33 L.Ed.2d 51, the Court of Appeals held that the District Court erred in enjoining the creation of the new school district. Scotland Neck is a community of about 3,000 persons, located in the southeastern portion of Halifax County, North Carolina. Since 1936, the city has been a part of the Halifax County Administrative Unit, a school district comprising the entire county with the exception of two towns located in the northern section. In the 1968—1969 school year, 10,655 students attended schools in this system, of whom 77% were Negro, 22% white, and 1% American Indian. The schools of Halifax County were completely segregated by race until 1965. In that year, the school board adopted a freedom-of-choice plan that produced very

Page 486 little actual desegregation. In the 1967—1968 school year, all of the white students in the county attended the four traditionally all-white schools, while 97% of the Negro students attended the 14 traditionally all-Negro schools. The school-busing system, used by 90% of the students, was segregated by race, and faculty desegregation was minimal. In 1968, the United States Department of Justice entered into negotiations with the Halifax County School Board to bring the county's school system into compliance with federal law. An agreement was reached whereby the school board undertook to provide some desegregation in the fall of 1968, and to effect a completely unitary system in the 1969—1970 school year. The State Department of Public Instruction, acting on a request from the county board, recommended a detailed plan (the Interim Plan) for the unitary system that would have put some white students in every school in the county, and that would have left a white majority in only one school. In January 1969, after the Interim Plan had been submitted to the county school board but before any action had been taken upon it, a bill was introduced in the state legislature to authorize the creation of a new school district bounded by the city limits of Scotland Neck, upon approval by a majority of the city's voters.¹ The bill was enacted on March 3, 1969, as Chapter 31 of the 1969 Session Laws of North Carolina. The citizens of Scotland Neck approved the new school

Page 487 district in a referendum a month later, ² and the new district began taking steps toward beginning a separat e school system in the fall of 1969. The effect of Chapter 31 was to carve out of the Halifax school district a new unit with 695 students, of whom 399 (57%) were white and 296 (43%) were Negro. Under a transfer plan devised by the newly appointed Scotland Neck City Board of Education, 360 students (350 white and 10 Negro) residing outside the city limits applied to transfer into the Scotland Neck schools, while 44 students (all Negro) applied to transfer out of the city system to a nearby school in the Halifax County system. The new district planned to use the facilities of the formerly all-white Scotland Neck High School, including one building located outside the city limits that would be leased from the county. The United States filed this lawsuit in June 1969 against both city and county officials, seeking desegregation of the existing Halifax County schools.³ The complaint asked for preliminary and permanent injunctions against the implementation of Chapter 31. Various Negro children, parents, and teachers, the petitioners in No. 70—187, were permitted to intervene as plaintiffs. After a three-day hearing before two district judges on both this case and a similar case involving two newly created school districts in neighboring Warren County,

Page 488 the District Court preliminarily enjoined the implementation of Chapter 31, finding that 'the Act in its application creates a refuge for white students, and promotes segregated schools in Halifax County,' and furtherthat '(t)he Act impedes and defeats the Halifax County Board of Education from implementing its plan to completely desegregate all of the public schools in Halifax County by the opening of the school year 1969—70.'⁴ After further hearings, the District Court on May 23, 1970, found Chapter 31 unconstitutional and permanently enjoined its enforcement. 314 F.Supp. 65. The Court of Appeals reversed, 442 F.2d 575, and we granted certiorari. 404 U.S. 821, 92 S.Ct. 47, 30 L.Ed.2d 49. The Court of Appeals did not believe that the separation of Scotland Neck from the Halifax County system should be viewed as an alternative plan for desegregating the county system, because the 'severance was not part of a desegregation plan proposed by the school board but was instead an action by the Legislature redefining the boundaries of local governmental units.' 442 F.2d, at 583. This suggests that an action of a state legislature affecting the desegregation of a dual system stands on a footing different from an action of a school board. But in North Carolina State Board of Education v. Swann, 402 U.S. 43, 91 S.Ct. 1284, 28 L.Ed.2d 586, decided after the decision of the Court of Appeals in this case, we held that 'if a state-imposed limitation on a school authority's discretion operates to inhibit or obstruct . . . the disestablishing of a dual school system, it must fall; state policy must give way when it operates to hinder vindication of federal constitutional guarantees.' Id., at 45, 91 S.Ct., at 1286. The fact that the creation of the Scotland Neck school district was authorized by a special act of the state legisla-

Page 489 ture rather than by the school board or city authorities thus has no constitutional significance. We have today held that any attempt by state or local officials...