Meredith v. Jefferson County
 | |
| Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education | |
| Reference: 05-915 | |
| Issue: Affirmative action | |
| Term: 2006 | |
| Important Dates | |
| Argued: December 4, 2006 Decided: June 28, 2007 | |
| Outcome | |
| Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded | |
| Vote | |
| 8-0 to reverse and remand | |
| Majority | |
| Chief Justice John G. Roberts • Antonin Scalia • Anthony Kennedy • Clarence Thomas • Samuel Alito | |
| Concurring | |
| Kennedy Thomas | |
| Dissenting | |
| John Paul Stevens • David Souter • Ruth Bader Ginsburg • Stephen Breyer | |
Meredith v. Jefferson County is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 2007 that rejected the notion that racial balancing of demographics in public schools was a compelling state interest. The court found the county's enrollment plan unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.[1]
Background
Until 2000, Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky had been integrated by court order. After release from the order, the school system maintained a policy that promoted racial integration by allowing no school to have an enrollment of black students less than 15 percent or greater than 50 percent of its student population. Students were allowed a choice of schools, but since not every school could accommodate every applicant, enrollment choices were sometimes made on the basis of race.[1]
The Supreme Court's decisions in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger allowed for race-based classifications directed towards compelling government interests and narrowly tailored to those interests. In these cases, the Supreme Court had found that promoting diversity in the student body provided certain educational benefits that made it a compelling government interest. The court stipulated, however that such policies should be narrowly tailored and provide individualized consideration for the applicants.[2][3]
Crystal Meredith and other parents sued the school system, claiming that the plan's use of racial classification violated the student's rights to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. The United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky found that the school system had a compelling interest in promoting student diversity, citing the Supreme Court's ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger. The court upheld the use of percentage guidelines for racial diversity, and found that the students whose transfers were rejected were not unduly harmed by the rejection. The plaintiffs appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which affirmed the lower court's decision. The plaintiffs further appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.[1][4]
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1
A similar case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, was heard alongside Meredith v. Jefferson County. The Seattle School District implemented a series of tiebreakers to determine admissions when too many students applied to the same high school. Part of the consideration for the tiebreaker was the race of the student. The plaintiffs argued that the system violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Washington state law. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on June 5, 2006.[5]
Decision
On June 28, 2007, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court declared the enrollment plan unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority found that the plan did not provide individualized consideration for students; instead, the plan separated students into two groups, black and other. The court found that the enrollment plan did not meet the standard for constitutional consideration of race. The court held that the plan was targeted towards demographic goals rather than educational interests. The majority opinion was delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Samuel Alito.[1][6]
Roberts wrote the following in the majority opinion:[1]
| “ | "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."[7] | ” |
| —Chief Justice John Roberts | ||
Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The dissent argued that the majority opinion ignored the context of the case and that, "it announces legal rules that will obstruct efforts by state and local governments to deal effectively with the growing resegregation of public schools, it threatens to substitute for present calm a disruptive round of race-related litigation, and it undermines Brown’s promise of integrated primary and secondary education that local communities have sought to make a reality."[8]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Oyez.org, "MEREDITH v. JEFFERSON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ Oyez.org, "Gratz v. Bollinger", accessed July 15, 2015
- ↑ Oyez.org, "Grutter v. Bollinger," accessed July 15, 2015
- ↑ law.cornell.edu, "Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, (05-915)*," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ Oyez.org, "PARENTS INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS v. SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1," accessed July 16, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "Affirmative Action," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ law.cornell.edu, " PARENTS INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS v.SEATTLE SCHOOL DIST. NO. 1," accessed Juley 15, 2015
