Justices to Hear Cases of Race-Conscious School Placements

Seattle and Louisville say their plans are consistent with the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling -- which allowed universities to consider race as one of many factors when assembling diverse colleges and graduate schools.

They say their use of race is necessary to meet compelling educational goals, and accounts for a modest number of school assignments.

But the plaintiffs argue that school officials have gone beyond what the court permitted in 2003, because they ultimately rely on fixed numerical targets for assigning students.

Each system adopted its plan voluntarily, but against the backdrop of different social and legal histories.

In Louisville, the 97,000-student public school population is 34 percent black, with the rest predominantly white. In 1973, a federal court ruled that it was officially, and unlawfully, segregated. This led to court-ordered busing from 1975 to 1984. The system remained under court supervision until 2000.

The current Louisville plan says that all schools, including magnets, must have a minimum black enrollment of 15 percent and a maximum of 50 percent.

The only exceptions are for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, alternative and special schools -- and four magnet schools covered by a federal judge's ruling barring the use of race to allocate educational opportunities not widely available.

Parent Crystal D. Meredith, however, argues that the plan cost her son admission to the school in his neighborhood.

In Seattle, which has substantial Asian and Hispanic populations as well as large numbers of whites and African Americans, no court has ever found the 47,000-student school system guilty of official segregation. Instead, the school board says that diversity is a key educational value and that segregated housing patterns must be changed.

The city began busing in 1977 but stopped in 1988. Under an "Open Choice" plan adopted in 1998, the goal was to have schools close to the city's overall racial composition: 60 percent minority, 40 percent white. Children can attend any school. At schools where demand for spaces exceeds supply, however, siblings of current students have priority -- and an "integration tiebreaker" favors students whose race would tip a school toward 60-40.

The tiebreaker has not been in use since 2002 because of the litigation, which was brought by Parents Involved in Community Schools, a group of white parents who say it cost their children admission to the popular Ballard High School.

The tiebreaker was initially invalidated by a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. But an 11-judge panel granted a new hearing and upheld it 7 to 4.

The cases are Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 , No. 05-908, and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education , No. 05-915. Argument will take place in December, with decisions due by July 2007.