Opinion ID: 594417
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Modification of the Consent Agreement

Text: 31 Finally, the NAACP argues that the district court should have modified the consent agreement by restricting the Board's freedom in its implementation of the plan to ensure significant progress toward desegregation in 1991-92 and beyond. The NAACP asked the district court to require the Board to implement a controlled choice 13 enrollment program for the elementary schools in the district. Alternatively, the NAACP sought to enjoin the Board from implementing its plan until the Board could show that its implementation would further desegregation. 32 The district court unquestionably had the inherent power to grant a modification in the CSA. See United States v. Swift & Co., 286 U.S. 106, 114, 52 S.Ct. 460, 462, 76 L.Ed. 999 (1932); Hodge v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 862 F.2d 859, 861-62 (11th Cir.1989). Modification may be considered when (1) a significant change in facts or law warrants change and the proposed modification is suitably tailored to the change, (2) significant time has passed and the objectives of the original agreement have not been met, (3) continuance is no longer warranted, or (4) a continuation would be inequitable and each side has legitimate interests to be considered. Rufo v. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 748, 764, 116 L.Ed.2d 867 (1992); Newman, 740 F.2d at 1520. 33 Based on the evidence before it, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the NAACP's request for modification. The NAACP has not yet demonstrated the existence of any of the situations in which modification might be warranted. As the district court noted, the Board's implementation plan has not yet been given much of an opportunity to work for the CSA's objectives. The NAACP filed suit for modification before the first year of implementation had even begun. Cf. United States v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 391 U.S. 244, 251-52, 88 S.Ct. 1496, 1501, 20 L.Ed.2d 562 (1968) (modification permissible where consent decree has not achieved its purposes after 10 years of operation). Furthermore, because the NAACP did not submit either estimated or actual overall attendance figures for the elementary schools during the 1991-92 school year, the district court was not clearly erroneous in finding that the NAACP failed to demonstrate a resegregative effect of the Board's implementation plan that might constitute a new and unforeseen condition justifying modification. 14 See Hodge, 862 F.2d at 862 (before modifying a consent agreement in response to a change in circumstances, court must be convinced by the party seeking relief that existing conditions differ so substantially from those which precipitated the decree as to warrant judicial adjustment). Therefore, this Court will not disturb the district court's denial of the NAACP's request for modification at this time. However, should the NAACP demonstrate a resegregative impact in the Board's implementation of CSA on remand, the district court will have the power to consider modification as a remedial measure. 15