US v. State of La., Civ. A. No. 80-3300.

• Decision Date: 19 February 1993
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 80-3300.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. STATE OF LOUISIANA.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

815 F. Supp. 947

UNITED STATES of America v. STATE OF LOUISIANA.

Civ. A. No. 80-3300.

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

February 19, 1993.

Franz Marshall, Civil Rights Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for plaintiff.

Thomas Halligan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Louisiana Dept. of Justice, Baton Rouge, for defendant.

ORDER AND REASONS

CHARLES SCHWARTZ, Jr., District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the state of Louisiana's motion for an order staying the implementation of this Court's remedial plan pending review by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The State is joined in its motion by the Louisiana Board of Regents, the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana States University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities (collectively known as the "state defendants"). Governor Edwin Edwards has also expressed his support for the motion by way of amicus curiae. The United States has submitted written opposition to the state defendants' motion. After reviewing the parties legal memoranda, the accompanying affidavits of Dr. Salley Clausen, Dr. Sammie W. Cosper, and Dr. Allen A. Copping, as well as the record in this matter, the Court is of the opinion that no oral argument on the motion is necessary and the motion is hereby taken under submission on the briefs. For the reasons stated herein, the state defendants' motion for an order staying the implementation of the Court's remedial plan is hereby DENIED.

I. LAW OF THE CASE

At the outset, the Court must address the question of whether the law of the case compels it to issue a stay at this time. In support of their argument that a stay should issue, the state defendants rely on the Supreme Court's order staying the implementation of the Court's remedial plan when this matter was last under appellate review,¹ the "law of the case" doctrine, and the doctrine's employment in Volkswagenwerk v. Falzon.²

In Volkswagenwerk, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court stayed a trial court discovery order pending review of the order by the Michigan Supreme Court. The Chief Justice's stay expired by its own terms after the Michigan Supreme Court affirmed the trial court. The defendant than moved for a stay from the Michigan Supreme Court pending its application of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. The Michigan Supreme Court delayed in its decision on the motion for a stay and the defendant applied for a stay from the United States Supreme Court. Justice O'Connor, sitting as a Circuit Judge, granted the application for a stay finding that it was "essentially the law of the case" that a second stay issue. Justice O'Connor's decision was based on a determination that one justice could not effectively overrule a previous decision by another justice when the question on the merits of the case remained unchanged.

The state defendants' reliance on Volkswagenwerk to bolster their position here is misplaced as this case is in an entirely different procedural posture. When this matter was last appealed, the Supreme Court had not yet had an opportunity to consider the then novel questions presented by this case. Since that time, the Supreme Court has issued a definitive ruling on the question of a state's responsibility to desegregate its public institutions of higher education.³ This Court applied the legal standards set forth in that decision to the factual circumstances unique to Louisiana and concluded that Louisiana is in violation of the Constitution. The question on the merits has, as a consequence of the reasoning upon which this Court based its decision, been modified markedly since the Supreme Court last stayed the proceedings in this matter. Accordingly, the Supreme Court's prior ruling is not the law of the case with respect to the instant motion for a stay. Rather, the motion must be considered anew under the relevant legal standards set forth by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

While F.R.C.P. Rule 62(c) authorizes the Court to grant the affirmative relief requested by the state defendants, the decision is one within the Court's discretion, and because "such an action interrupts the ordinary process of judicial review and postpones relief for the prevailing party ..., the stay of an equitable order is an extraordinary device which should be granted sparingly."⁴ Moreover, when the equitable remedy at issue has been a remedial plan designed to correct the interminable affliction of segregation, the federal judiciary has traditionally spoken in a single voice of disapproval.⁵ No Court, however, has previously been presented with an opportunity to consider whether the heightened scrutiny associated with the granting of stays in elementary and secondary school desegregation cases is applicable to a higher education desegregation case such as this. Therefore this Court returns to the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Fordice to compare its mandate with that of Brown and its progeny.

Fordice "portends neither the destruction of historically black colleges nor the severing of those institutions from their distinctive histories and traditions."⁶ Unlike elementary and secondary school systems, liability in a system of higher public education cannot be premised on racial identifiability alone. Nevertheless, upon a finding of liability, the Fordice Court was explicit in its command to end state sponsored vestiges of discrimination in higher education. It follows that, although a determination of liability may involve differing considerations in the context of higher education and elementary and secondary schools, the judiciary's duty is the same once such a finding is made — "to institute meaningful relief which will work immediately to eliminate the past illegality and assure future compliance with the laws of the land."⁷ Thus, the heightened scrutiny under which motions for stays have been judged in desegregation cases at the elementary and secondary school level applies here.

With this in mind, the Court turns to the specific factors to be considered in making its ruling. Those factors are: (1) whether the movant has made a showing of likelihood of success on the merits; (2) whether the movant has made a showing of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted; (3) whether the granting of the stay would substantially harm the other parties; and (4) whether the granting of the stay would serve the public interest.⁸ In applying these factors, the Court is mindful that in this Circuit the "movant need only present a substantial case on the merits when a serious legal question is involved and show that the balance of equities weighs heavily in favor of granting the stay."⁹

III. LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESS ON THE MERITS

Undoubtedly, the "legal questions presented by this case are serious questions of substantial import" not only to the state of Louisiana and its citizens but also to students, academicians, and other concerned individuals throughout the United States. Contrary to the suggestion of the state defendants, however, the proper legal inquiries pertinent to a finding of liability have been clearly delineated by the Supreme Court. Similarly, there is no reason to believe that the remedial issues in this case are so novel as to cast in doubt the well-entrenched standards by which court-imposed remedial plans have been judged in the past. The lack of dispute with regard to the legal issues involved in this case does not, of course, diminish the seriousness of those questions. Rather, it is an equitable consideration which must be balanced along with all of the other pertinent factors in determining the propriety or impropriety of granting a stay in this particular case.¹⁰

The seriousness of the legal issues involved does not by itself secure the state defendants' position with respect to the Court's initial inquiry; a substantial case on the merits must also be tendered. It is here that the state defendants have conspicuously failed. The lack of foundation upon which the state defendants have attempted to justify the current state of affairs in Louisiana can be illustrated best by a brief assessment of their four general objections to these proceedings and the Court's concomitant findings. First, the state defendants complain that the Court, in its December 23, 1992 order, 811 F.Supp. 1151, reinstating summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff, found that the state defendants had conceded the issue of liability. Secondly, the state defendants argue that the Fordice decision established a criteria for liability which requires a review of evidence that cannot be adequately considered on a motion for summary judgment. Thirdly, the state defendants contend that the Court erroneously relied on dicta from the remedy portion of these proceedings to justify its reinstatement of summary judgment on the issue of liability. Finally, focusing almost exclusively on the Court's elimination of the multi-board governance system, the state defendants find fault in the remedial plan itself.

A. Concession of Liability

The state defendants first complain that the Court improperly presumed that they had conceded the issue of liability by entering into settlement negotiations with the United States shortly before the Court issued its order reinstating summary judgment. In support of their position, the state defendants latch onto a short statement in the Court's opinion which made reference to the negotiations.¹¹ Upon reviewing the opinion, the Court has found no foundation, whatsoever, for the state defendants' argument. Even a hyper-technical reading of the language does not support their interpretation of the Court's prior opinion. Its discussion was not nor did it purport to be a finding that the state defendants had conceded the liability issue. To the contrary, the commentary was nothing more than a prelude to a twelve page...