Opinion ID: 1320911
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to Modify the Modified Order

Text: This court reviews the district court's order granting in part, and denying in part, defendants' motion to modify the order, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(5), for abuse of discretion. Frazar v. Ladd, 457 F.3d 432, 435 (5th Cir.2006). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(5) provides that a party may obtain relief from a court order when applying it prospectively is no longer equitable. The party seeking to modify an injunction bears the burden of establishing that a significant change in factual conditions or the law warrants revision of the injunction. See Rufo v. Inmates of the Suffolk County Jail, 502 U.S. 367, 383-84, 112 S.Ct. 748, 116 L.Ed.2d 867 (1992). Defendants argue that this court's decision in Samnorwood Independent School District v. Texas Education Agency, 533 F.3d 258 (5th Cir.2008), constitutes a significant change in the law and requires this court to limit the reach of the Modified Order to the nine all-black school district defendants in the original lawsuit. In Samnorwood, two school districts that voluntarily desegregated in the 1960s and were not party to the original 1970 litigation challenged whether the Modified Order could be appropriately applied to them. This court held as follows: [T]he prophylactic provisions created by the Modified Order to remedy the segregative conduct on the part of TEA and all-black schools in East Texas should not be imposed on these two panhandle school districts that had long previously already desegregated and have never since been found to have acted with segregative intent. Id. at 269. Central to the court's analysis was the fact that there had been no showing of a constitutional violation by the school districts themselves, and the modified order and TEA's actions pursuant to it constitute a remedy that must flow from a constitutional violation. Id. at 268, 267-68. The trial court read Samnorwood very narrowly, determining that this Court's decision was largely based on the fact that the two school districts involved had been unitary prior to the implementation of the Modified Order. LULAC V, 2008 WL 5334404 at . Ultimately, the district court modified the order in a very restrictive manner, exempting only those districts situated almost identically to the Samnorwood districts. We find that this modification was overly restrictive. The Modified Order was issued for the purpose of eliminating the diverse continued local practices and vestiges of de jure racially segregated public education. [27] Since its issuance, nearly forty years have elapsed, and the racial composition of public schools in Texas has changed drastically. See United States v. Texas, 457 F.3d 472, 475 (5th Cir.2006). And while this court recognizes that some local vestiges of discrimination and segregation might still remain, it is clear that the Modified Order certainly has, at best, dwindling relevance. Id. In light of the above, and this court's supervisory powers, we hold that the Modified Order's reach should be further limited. Related concerns led us to modify the original order on direct appeal to provide that [no]thing herein shall be deemed to affect the jurisdiction of any other district court with respect to any presently pending or future school desegregation suits. United States v. Texas, 447 F.2d 441, 442 (5th Cir.1971). See also, e.g., United States v. Texas, 466 F.2d 518, 519 (5th Cir.1972) (transferring case as to San Felipe Del Rio School District to Western District of Texas). Time has shown that further restriction of the modified order's scope is necessary and appropriate. See, e.g., Samnorwood, 533 F.3d at 269; Gregory-Portland, 654 F.2d at 993-94. The district court was correct to exempt school districts similarly situated to the Samnorwood districts. In addition, we find that the same modification must be made for local school districts declared unitary in federal cases; school districts currently under federal court desegregation orders or decrees or which are parties to pending federal court desegregation suits; and any other specific school district not a party to the case when the Modified Order was issued which requests, or for which the State requests, exemption from the Modified Order unless a plaintiff shows the district is not then unitary. As to such districts that are thus now or subsequently exempted from the Modified Order, the district court may no longer direct TEA with regard to such districts pursuant to its remedial jurisdiction over the Modified Order. [28]