Opinion ID: 465182
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Effect of the Unitary Finding

Text: 60 This brings us to the principal issue in this appeal: What effect does the finding that Norfolk's school system is unitary have upon the prosecution of a constitutional challenge to the proposed neighborhood school assignment plan? What procedure governs a challenge to a student assignment plan for a school district that historically practiced de jure segregation but had obtained a valid judicial order that it has ridded itself of all vestiges of that racial discrimination? A related inquiry must be to what extent and for how long must a previously discriminating school system submit to judicial control. Does judicial involvement end when unitary status is achieved or does judicial involvement continue in perpetuity to prevent resegregation absent a showing of intent to discriminate? 14 61 The district court concluded that its finding that the Norfolk school system is unitary had the effect of shifting the burden of proof from the defendant school board to the plaintiffs. It held that plaintiffs had the burden of proving that the school board implemented the contested pupil assignment plan with an intent to discriminate on the basis of race. 62 Plaintiffs disagree with the allocation of the burden of proof by the district court. They claim that the burden of proof remains on the school board to prove that implementation of the new assignment plan will not perpetuate the vestiges of the past de jure dual system. While we find no case which has addressed the issue under a fact situation the same as present here, we agree with the district court's allocation of the burden of proof. 63 Since 1954, de jure racial segregation in public schools has been unlawful as in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Brown, supra. Such discriminating schools were placed under an affirmative duty to 'effectuate a transition to a racially non-discriminatory school system'. Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, Col., 413 U.S. 189, 200, 93 S.Ct. 2686, 2693, 37 L.Ed.2d 548 (1973), quoting Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294, 301, 75 S.Ct. 753, 756, 99 L.Ed. 1083 (1955) (Brown II). State sanctioned dual school systems must take whatever steps are necessary to completely eliminate racial discrimination. Dayton Board of Ed. v. Brinkman, 443 U.S. 526, 537-8, 99 S.Ct. 2971, 2979, 61 l.Ed.2d 720 (1979) (Dayton II); Columbus Bd. of Ed. v. Penick, 443 U.S. 449, 458-59, 99 S.Ct. 2941, 2946-47, 61 L.Ed.2d 666 (1979); Swann, supra, 402 U.S. at 15, 91 S.Ct. at 1275; Green, supra, 391 U.S. at 437-8, 88 S.Ct. at 1693-94. Each instance of a refusal or failure to perform its duty to desegregate constitutes a constitutional violation by the school board. Columbus Bd. of Ed., supra, 443 U.S. at 459, 99 S.Ct. at 2947, citing other cases. 64 Once a plaintiff shows that segregation exists in a school system that was authorized or required by state law at the time Brown was decided, it follows as a matter of course that the school authorities have a duty to eliminate such segregation. Keyes, supra, 413 U.S. at 200-3, 93 S.Ct. at 2693-95. The board cannot satisfy its duty by merely abandoning its prior discriminatory purpose. Nor can it take any action that would impede the process of converting to a unitary system. Dayton II, supra, 443 U.S. at 538, 99 S.Ct. at 2979. The board is under a heavy burden of showing that any action it takes that continues the effects of the illegal dual system serves a legitimate end. Id. The burden remains upon the school board to dismantle the segregated system and convert to a unitary system in which racial discrimination [is] eliminated root and branch. Green, supra, 391 U.S. at 438, 88 S.Ct. at 1694. 65 Rescission of a voluntary desegregation plan itself may be found to be an act of segregation for a school board which has been found to have practiced de jure segregation and has not completed the transition from a dual to a unitary school system. NAACP v. Lansing Bd. of Ed., 559 F.2d 1042 (6th Cir.), cert. den. 434 U.S. 997, 98 S.Ct. 635, 54 L.Ed.2d 491 (1977). In a school system that has not become unitary, the school board is not barred from ever changing a desegregation plan. In such a situation, however, the board must show that the proposed changes are consistent with its continuing affirmative duty to eliminate discrimination. Clark v. Board of Educ. of Little Rock School Dist., 705 F.2d 265 (8th Cir.1983). 66 The continued existence of a small number of one race schools within such a school district does not establish in and of itself a constitutional violation. Swann, supra, 402 U.S. at 26, 91 S.Ct. at 1281; Clark, supra, 705 F.2d at 272. The burden is upon the school board, however, to show that the existence of such schools are genuinely nondiscriminatory and not vestiges of past segregation. Swann, supra, 402 U.S. at 26, 91 S.Ct. at 1281; Davis v. E. Baton Rouge Parish School Bd., 721 F.2d 1425, 1434 (5th Cir.1983). 67 A district court is under a duty to enter a desegregation order that will go as far as possible toward eliminating segregation. Green, supra, 391 U.S. at 438 n. 4, 88 S.Ct. at 1694 n. 4. The court's equitable powers in such decrees are broad indeed, but they are not plenary. They are limited to those cases in which a constitutional violation has occurred, either where a de jure segregated system exists, where intent to discriminate is presumed, or where a de facto segregated system exists and intent to discriminate has been proven. In situations in which a school board has defaulted on its obligations, the court can use its broad powers to fashion a remedy in order to assure a unitary system. Swann, supra, 402 U.S. at 16, 91 S.Ct. at 1276. 68 Once such a remedy is fashioned, the district court retains jurisdiction until it is clear that the unlawful segregation has been completely eliminated. But once the goal of a unitary school system is achieved, the district court's role ends. See, generally, Pasadena City Bd. of Ed. v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424, 96 S.Ct. 2697, 49 L.Ed.2d 599 (1976). Foreseeing such a time, the Swann Court stated: 69 At some point, these school authorities and others like them should have achieved full compliance with this Court's decision in Brown I. The systems would then be 'unitary' in the sense required by our decisions in Green and Alexander. 70 It does not follow that the communities served by such systems will remain demographically stable, for in a growing, mobile society, few will do so. Neither school authorities nor district courts are constitutionally required to make year-by-year adjustments of the racial composition of student bodies once the affirmative duty to desegregate has been accomplished and racial discrimination through official action is eliminated from the system. This does not mean that federal courts are without power to deal with future problems; but in the absence of a showing that either the school authorities or some other agency of the State has deliberately attempted to fix or alter demographic patterns to affect the racial composition of the schools, further intervention by a district court should not be necessary. 71 Swann, supra, 402 U.S. at 31-32, 91 S.Ct. at 1283-84. 72 In Pasadena, supra, 427 U.S. 424, 96 S.Ct. 2699, the Court again recognized that the right of the federal courts must end when the objective sought has been achieved. A court ordered desegregation plan was adopted in 1970 which provided that students must be assigned in such a manner so that no school in the district would be comprised of a majority of any minority students. Id. at 428, 96 S.Ct. at 2701. The district court retained jurisdiction in the case. Neither party appealed, and the plan became effective that same calendar year. 73 Four years later, the school board returned to court, seeking, among other things, relief from the no majority of any minority students provision in the form of a lifting of the court's injunction. The district court refused to grant the school board relief from its order primarily because it perceived that the school board had not properly complied with its order after the first year it was in force. The school board had adjusted attendance zones in 1970 to comply with the order but had not readjusted each year thereafter. As a result, schools slipped out of literal compliance with the not to exceed 50% mandate by the next school year. By the time of the district court hearing, five of the system's 32 schools no longer met the less than 50% rule. Id. at 431, 96 S.Ct. at 2702. The district court made clear that it expected the school board to readjust student attendance figures yearly to comply with the court's ruling. Id. at 433, 96 S.Ct. at 2703. The court of appeals found that the district court had not abused its discretion in imposing such an annual requirement. 74 The Supreme Court disagreed. Initially, it found that the district court was impermissibly requiring a particular degree of racial balance or mixing which Swann expressly condemned. Id. at 434, 96 S.Ct. at 2703-04. While such a racial balance can be a starting point on the road to complete desegregation, it reasoned, it can never be an inflexible requirement. 75 Next, the Court rejected the district court's authority to impose such a requirement absent a showing that the defendant school board was responsible for the intervening changes in the racial composition of the schools. The Court relied approvingly on the cautionary language of Swann that  'it must be recognized that there are limits' beyond which a court may not go in seeking to dismantle a dual school system. [Citation omitted] These limits are in part tied to the necessity of establishing that school authorities have in some manner caused unconstitutional segregation, for '[a]bsent a constitutional violation there would be no basis for judicially ordering assignment of students on a racial basis'. Id. at 434, 96 S.Ct. at 2703-04. 76 The district court had found a constitutional violation in 1970 and thus had the initial authority to cause the reassignment of students on the basis of race. But once Pasadena adopted a racially neutral system, no further constitutional violation could be found unless by acts attributable to the school board. At that point, the district court exceeded its authority by requiring the readjustment of attendance zones absent such a constitutional violation. Because the school board was not responsible for the demographic shifts in the population which caused the schools to slip out of compliance, it was under no duty to adjust school attendance figures to reflect those changes. The Court concluded that having once implemented a racially neutral attendance pattern in order to remedy the perceived constitutional violations on the part of the defendants, the District Court had fully performed its function of providing the appropriate remedy for previous racially discriminatory attendance zones. Id. at 436-7, 96 S.Ct. at 2704-05. 77 We have only recently examined both Pasadena and Swann and concluded that a district court's power to effect additional remedial orders is limited. Once a school system has achieved unitary status, a court may not order further relief to counter-act resegregation that does not result from the school system's intentionally discriminatory acts. Vaughns, supra, at 988. Other courts have reached the same conclusion. Davis, supra, 721 F.2d at 1435 (Changes in neighborhood ethnicity taking place after school officials have transformed their system into a unitary one need not be remedied, of course, for school officials are under no duty to adjust for the purely private acts of those who chose to vote with their feet.); Ross v. Houston Independent School Dist., 699 F.2d 218, 225 (5th Cir.1983) (When state officials have not only made good faith efforts to eliminate the vestiges of segregation, but have actually achieved a school system clean of every residue of past official discrimination, immutable geographic factors and post-demographic changes that prevent the homogenation of all student bodies do not bar judicial recognition that the school system is unitary.) But see United States v. Hendry Co. Sch. Dist., 504 F.2d 550, 554 (5th Cir.1974) (We cannot tolerate resegregation of a former dual school system, and the school board of such a system must demonstrate that the new construction will not tend to promote such a relapse. The decision was prior to Pasadena, however.) 78 We agree with the district court that Swann and the cases that follow, both in the Supreme Court and in the courts of appeals, require a plaintiff to prove discriminatory intent on the part of the school board of a unitary school system. 79 We think the rationale of these cases is applicable here. We recognize some factual differences between those cases, where factors outside the school board's control such as demographic changes cause the racial composition of schools to change, and the case we consider today, where an act of the school board in changing a part of a desegregation plan results in the shifting racial composition of the schools. We do not take lightly this factual distinction but conclude that the plaintiffs must be required to carry the burden of proving discriminatory intent. 80 While we find no case decided in the same situation as that before us, the Ninth Circuit has alluded to markedly similar facts in holding that the district court must relinquish jurisdiction over the Pasadena case following remand. Spangler v. Pasadena, 611 F.2d 1239 (9th Cir.1979). Following the Supreme Court decision in Pasadena, the school board sought to have the district court dissolve the injunction entered in the case and relinquish jurisdiction. 15 The district court refused to end its oversight over the Pasadena school system. 81 The court of appeals concluded that the district court's refusal was based upon a belief that unless it retained jurisdiction, the Board might at some future date, by action or inaction, cause or suffer to occur some degree of avoidable 'resegregation'. Spangler, supra, at 1240. 16 In reversing that decision, the Ninth Circuit relied upon the three factors set out in Millikin v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267, 280-1, 97 S.Ct. 2749, 2757, 53 L.Ed.2d 745 (1977) (Millikin II), in ascertaining the propriety of the remedial measures to be used following a finding of de jure school segregation. First, the court must consider the nature and scope of the constitutional violation; second, the remedial objective sought is to be the restoration of the victims of discrimination to the position they would have occupied absent the constitutional violation; and, third, consideration must be given to the interests of allowing state and local authorities to manage their own affairs. Finding all three factors were met following nine years of court supervision, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the time had come to end court intervention in Pasadena's school system. 611 F.2d at 1240-1241 (Judge Goodwin). 82 Judge Kennedy's opinion set out in more detail the basis for the district court's concerns over resegregation. The district court feared that once jurisdiction terminated, the school board planned to return to a neighborhood school plan as had existed before the 1970 court ordered desegregation plan. If the neighborhood plan were readopted, the racial composition of Pasadena's schools would revert to approximately what it was before the desegregation plan. Spangler, supra, at 1243. School board members had made it known publicly that they endorsed return to a neighborhood school plan. It was upon these facts that the district court based its finding of continuing intentional discrimination by the school board. Spangler, supra, at 1244. 83 The court found (Judge Kennedy) that the district court had committed errors of law in reaching that conclusion. Initially, the district court appeared to be requiring a certain racial balance to be maintained in Pasadena's schools, a concept disapproved by the Supreme Court. It said [t]he Supreme Court has emphasized that when a large percentage of minority students in a neighborhood school results from housing patterns for which school authorities are not responsible, the school board may not be charged with unconstitutional discrimination if a racially neutral assignment method is adopted.... From the standpoint of racial balance in pupil assignments, compliance with the [court's desegregation plan] for nine years is sufficient in this case, given the nature and degree of the initial violation, to cure the effects of previous improper assignment policies. Spangler, supra, at 1244. 84 It rejected the district court's justification that continuing jurisdiction was required to prevent readoption of a neighborhood school plan with its concomitant change in racial balance, and found that adoption of a neighborhood plan was not necessarily synonymous with an intent to discriminate. Adopting a student assignment method different from the [court's plan] may have the foreseeable effect of increasing racial imbalance in the Pasadena schools. This fact is relevant in determining whether a plan was adopted as a result of invidious intent, but other factors must also be examined.... The fact that the Board has explored assignment alternatives which may increase racial imbalance provides little support for the conclusion ... that the proposal, if adopted, would result from constitutionally infirm motives. Spangler, supra, at 1245. 85 Both opinions agreed that if a new student assignment plan were adopted in Pasadena with the intent to discriminate, a new suit could be brought to challenge such a plan. In the absence of such intentional acts, authority to run the school system should be returned to the school board. Spangler, 611 F.2d at 1241, 1242, 1247. 86 The 1975 order of the district court in Norfolk returned control of the city's schools to the school board by its finding that the school system was unitary. Nothing in the record about events between then and the proposal of the pupil assignment plan here in question has changed that situation. The Norfolk board recently took the very action the court considered to be contemplated by the Pasadena school board. While the Ninth Circuit had only the question of termination of district court jurisdiction before it, that court made clear that following such relinquishment, a plaintiff must prove that the school board acted with an intent to discriminate in adopting a new student assignment plan. We find that reasoning persuasive and consistent with our reasoning in Vaughns. We hold that the burden of proving discriminatory intent attaches to a plaintiff once a de jure segregated school system has been found to be unitary. 87 Once a constitutional violation has been remedied, any further judicial action regarding student assignments without a new showing of discriminatory intent would amount to the setting of racial quotas, which have been consistently condemned by the Court in the context of school integration absent a need to remedy an unlawful condition. Pasadena, supra, 427 U.S. at 433-4, 96 S.Ct. at 2703; Millikin v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 740-41, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 3125, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974) (Millikin I ); Swann, supra, 402 U.S. at 24-5, 91 S.Ct. at 1280. Racial quotas are to be used as a starting point in remedying de jure segregation but not as an ultimate goal to be continued in perpetuity. Indeed, since almost every action of a school board with respect to pupil assignments in a mixed school system necessarily affects racial balance, if we were to require the Norfolk school board to justify every action it takes that affects the racial balance of its schools, we would make a finding that the school system is unitary virtually meaningless in that context. The 1975 unitary finding marks the end of de jure segregation in the system. Following such a finding, control of the system must be allowed to return to local officials. No one seriously disputes that public education has traditionally been a local concern. Generally, Millikin I, supra, 418 U.S. at 741-2, 94 S.Ct. at 3125-26. And the power of the federal courts is not plenary, Swann, 402 U.S. p. 16, 91 S.Ct. p. 1976; rather, it depends upon a constitutional violation for its exercise. Pasadena, 427 U.S. p. 434, 96 S.Ct. p. 2703. 88 We reject plaintiffs' argument that the Norfolk school board must continue to justify all of its actions because of the history of segregation. While that history of discrimination cannot and should not be ignored, it cannot in the manner of original sin, condemn governmental action that is not itself unlawful. City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 74, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 1503, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980) (plurality opinion of the Court by Justice Stewart). If the rule were otherwise, virtually every action of the school board with respect to any of its various affairs would be suspect. And, to repeat, we keep in mind that while the history of discrimination is not dispositive, it is relevant to a court's determination of the school board's intent. 89 Plaintiffs' reliance on cases such as Columbus Board of Education, supra, 443 U.S. 449, 99 S.Ct. 2941; Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman, 443 U.S. 526, 99 S.Ct. 2971, 61 L.Ed.2d 720 (1979) (Dayton II ); Keyes, supra, 413 U.S. 189, 93 S.Ct. 2686; Swann, supra, 402 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 28 L.Ed.2d 554, and Green, supra, 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. at 1690 for placing the burden of proof on the school board is misplaced because all of those cases involved state sanctioned discriminating school districts that had not dismantled their dual systems. None had reached the goal of a unitary system as Norfolk has done.