Opinion ID: 772626
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: District Court's Reliance on Lockett I

Text: 60
61 With the foregoing principles and standards in mind, we turn to the case before us. Appellants argue, inter alia, 26 that the district court committed reversible error by relying upon our opinion in Lockett v. Board of Education of Muscogee County, 92 F.3d 1092 (11th Cir.1996) (Lockett I). 27 In Lockett I, a panel of this Court reversed a district court's finding of unitary status and ordered the district court to retain jurisdiction ... to monitor the progress of the school district's desegregation efforts until the school district could show that it ha[d] desegregated its schools to the maximum extent practicable. Id. at 1101 (emphasis added). Lockett I was subsequently vacated by the same panel. See Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 840-45. 62 The district judge, in relying on Lockett I, applied the wrong legal standard. The law does not require, as stated in Lockett I, that a school board eliminate the vestiges of past discrimination to the maximum extent practicable. 92 F.3d at 1101 (emphasis added). Rather, the law merely requires that the vestiges of past discrimination be eliminated to the extent practicable. Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 842 (emphasis added); accord Jenkins, 515 U.S. at 90, 115 S.Ct. at 2050; 28 Freeman, 503 U.S. at 492, 112 S.Ct. at 1446; Dowell, 498 U.S. at 250, 111 S.Ct. at 638; United States v. Georgia, 171 F.3d 1344, 1347 (11th Cir.1999); Lee, 963 F.2d at 1425. The district judge incorrectly referred to the maximum extent practicable (or possible) standard at least 12 times in her opinion of October 24, 1998, and four times in her order of December 4, 1998. See Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1287, 1289, 1290, 1292, 1293, 1301, 1312, 1326, 1334, 1335; Manning, 28 F.Supp.2d at 1356, 1359, 1360. 63 Accordingly, the critical issue is whether the district judge's repeated use of the wrong legal standard sufficiently tainted or infected the findings of fact so as to strip those findings of the insulation normally accorded under Rule 52(a). See supra Part II.A; Corley, 566 F.2d at 1001. We would not permit an inadvertent use of language by a district court to constitute reversible error. Here, however, we are persuaded that the district judge's mistake is more than mere inadvertence. 29 As we discuss immediately below, the district judge's findings on student assignments and good faith were tainted (and thus stripped of Rule 52(a) protection) because the district judge held Appellants to a higher standard than the law requires. 64
65 In Lockett, the critical issue was, as it is here, whether the racial imbalances in student assignments precluded a finding of unitary status. See Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 842, 843. Lockett II held that, for a school board to rebut the presumption of de jure segregation, the school board had to prove the [racial] imbalances [were] not the result of present or past discrimination on its part. Id. at 843; see also supra Part II.B.1. The district court in Lockett II found the school board rebutted the presumption by presenting expert demographic evidence showing the imbalances to be the result of voluntary housing patterns and demographic change. See id. The school board's demographic evidence was not contradicted by plaintiffs' experts. See id. The Lockett II majority affirmed the district court's finding as not being clearly erroneous. See id. at 844. 66 By contrast, Lockett I staked out a position on the law under which school boards would have been held to a higher standard. Instead of affirming, the Lockett I panel would have remanded, so the district court could have continued supervising the school board until such time as a reliable body of data exist[ed] to assure ... that the school district ha[d] desegregated its schools to the maximum extent practicable. Lockett I, 92 F.3d at 1101 (emphasis added); accord Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 844 (Barkett, J. dissenting). Under Lockett I, a school board would have been required to remedy racial imbalances even when the imbalances [were] caused by circumstances over which the school district has no control. Lockett I, 92 F.3d at 1099 (quoted in Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1310). Moreover, according to Lockett I, to be declared unitary, it is not enough for a school board to show demographic shifts as the cause of the racial imbalances, as demographic shifts are not necessarily independent of prior unconstitutional practices. 30 Id. at 1099 (cited in Manning, 28 F.Supp.2d at 1359). 67 Lockett I, however, is not the law of this circuit. Rather, the law of the circuit must be distilled from Lockett II. We reiterate that, to overcome the presumption that racial imbalances are constitutionally violative, a school board must prove that the imbalances are not the result of present or past discrimination on its part. Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 843. Lockett II stands for the proposition that a school board overcomes this presumption when it shows that some external force, which is not the result of segregation and is beyond the school board's control, substantially caused the racial imbalances. See id. (upholding declaration of unitary status when district court found demographic shifts caused racial imbalances); see also Jenkins, 515 U.S. at 102, 115 S.Ct. at 2055-56; contra Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 845 (Barkett, J. dissenting) (advocating contrary proposition). Where a defendant school board shows that demographic shifts are a substantial cause of the racial imbalances, the defendant has overcome the presumption of de jure segregation. See Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 843. Courts shall not assume that demographic shifts are a result of the past de jure segregation. Contra Lockett I, 92 F.3d at 1099 (advocating contrary proposition); Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 845 (Barkett, J. dissenting) (same). Such an assumption is improper because [i]t is simply not always the case that demographic forces causing population change bear any real and substantial relation to a de jure violation, and the law need not proceed on that premise. 31 Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 843 (internal alterations omitted) (quoting Freeman, 503 U.S. at 496, 112 S.Ct. at 1448). Lastly, a plaintiff does not undermine the strength of a defendant's demographic evidence by merely asserting that demographics alone do not explain the racial imbalances. 32 Rather, for a plaintiff to preserve the presumption of de jure segregation, the plaintiff must show that the demographic shifts are the result of the prior de jure segregation or some other discriminatory conduct. 68 If the district judge had applied Lockett II, rather than Lockett I, her findings of fact would have led her to the same conclusion as the magistrate judge with respect to student assignments. The district judge, like the magistrate judge, found that demographic shifts were a substantial or significant reason for the racial imbalances and that the racial imbalances were inevitable, irrespective of Appellants' efforts. See supra Part I.B.3.a; Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1303, 1311; Manning, 28 F.Supp.2d at 1356. With this finding of fact, Appellants overcame the presumption that the racial imbalances in student assignments were the result of de jure segregation. To preserve the presumption, Appellees were required to show that the demographic shifts were the result of the past segregative practices or some other discriminatory conduct. Appellees made no such showing. The district judge never found that the racial imbalances at the 17 challenged schools were caused by the past de jure segregation or other discriminatory acts. In fact, the district judge found the exact opposite. That is, the district judge found that Appellants did not deliberately cause the racial imbalances through segregative policies or practices. See supra Part I.B.3.a; Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1310. Appellees merely persuaded the district judge that demographics alone did not account for the racial imbalances. See id. at 1302 (refusing to find that a shift in demography [was] the sole cause [of] the [racial] imbalance[s] in the school system). Such a finding is insufficient to deny Appellants a declaration of unitary status. 69 Accordingly, by applying the correct legal standard from Lockett II to the district judge's findings of fact, we reach the same conclusion as the magistrate judge: Appellants have achieved unitary status with respect to student assignments. 70
71 As discussed previously, the district judge had two interrelated areas of concern which precluded, in her view, a finding of good faith: Appellants' apathy and the lack of an effective MTM program. See supra Part I.B.3.b. The district judge's reliance on Lockett I undoubtedly infected her finding with regard to Appellants' alleged apathy. The district judge, as noted above, expected Appellants to desegregate the public schools in Hillsborough County to the maximum extent practicable. E.g., Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1287; supra Part I.B.3.b. Such an expectation was erroneous, for the law does not require a defendant school board to take every conceivable step in attempting to desegregate. See, e.g., Freeman, 503 U.S. at 493, 112 S.Ct. at 1447 (expressly rejecting premise that heroic measures must be taken to ensure racial balance). Thus, the district judge's concern about Appellants' alleged apathy was an error of law directly traceable to her reliance upon Lockett I. 72 Further, Appellants' lack of an effective MTM program does not necessarily amount to a finding of bad faith. For instance, in Lockett, the school board did not implement its MTM program until years after the desegregation decree was entered and ignored other requirements of the desegregation decree. See Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 844; Lockett I, 92 F.3d at 1100, 1101. Nonetheless, we affirmed a finding of good faith based in part on the district court's finding that the school board had never violated a court order, had never been enjoined or sanctioned, and had consulted with African-American members of community before modifying the student assignment plan. See Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 843-44; contra Lockett I, 92 F.3d at 1100, 1101. Likewise, in the case sub judice, Appellants never violated a court order, never were sanctioned, and consulted extensively with the African-American community, including Appellees, prior to implementing new student assignments under the 1991 Task Force Report. See supra Parts I.B.2 & I.B.3.b. Therefore, based on Lockett II, the district judge clearly could have found the Appellants acted in good faith, notwithstanding the lack of a viable MTM program. 73 Additionally, we are persuaded that, if the district judge had followed the law as set forth in Lockett II, she would have concluded that Appellants have acted in good faith. As we explained in Lockett II, in determining whether a school board has acted in good faith, a court should not dwell on isolated discrepancies, but rather should consider whether the school board's policies form a consistent pattern of lawful conduct directed to eliminating earlier violations. 33 Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 843 (internal quotations omitted); see also Freeman, 503 U.S. at 491, 112 S.Ct. at 1446 (holding that a court should give particular attention to the school system's record of compliance). Repeatedly in the October 26, 1998, opinion, the district judge commended Appellants for their desegregation efforts. See, e.g., Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1287, 1311, 1312, 1325; supra Part I.B.3.b. At the end of the opinion, the district judge further commented: 74 After evaluating the voluminous record in this case, the Court is convinced that [Appellants] have a short road to travel [to attain unitary status]. Essentially, Defendants need to demonstrate that they are willing to aggressively desegregate the school district to the maximum extent practicable. 34 75 Manning, 24 F.Supp.2d at 1335. Based on the foregoing statement, we are convinced that, if the district judge had applied the correct standard, she would have found (as the magistrate judge did) that Appellants acted in good faith, notwithstanding the absence of an effective MTM program and other possible discrepancies. 76 Our conclusion is buttressed by two other points. First, the MTM program, as conceded by Appellees' expert, would have been ineffective in desegregating the 17 challenged schools. 35 As such, the MTM program should have had only marginal relevance in analyzing whether Appellants' policies form[ed] a consistent pattern of lawful conduct directed to eliminating earlier violations. Lockett II, 111 F.3d at 843 (emphasis added) (internal quotations and citation omitted). 77 Second, discerning a school board's good faith is in some respects a subjective finding. Thus, such a finding depends in part on the judge's personal observation of the witnesses. The magistrate judge, not the district judge, observed all of the witnesses at the evidentiary hearing. Granted, the district judge was free under 28 U.S.C. 636 to make a de novo determination of the magistrate judge's findings. In other contexts, however, we have cautioned district judges from overruling a magistrate judge's finding where credibility determinations are dispositive. See, e.g., Proffitt v. Wainwright, 685 F.2d 1227, 1237 (11th Cir.1982) (noting that, in criminal or habeas corpus cases, a district judge's reasons for rejecting a report and recommendation must be consistent with the credibility choices made by a magistrate). In addition, the rationale for deferring to a district court's finding of fact is that a trial judge is aware of the variations in demeanor which bear so heavily in making a subjective determination. See Anderson, 470 U.S. at 575, 105 S.Ct. at 1512. Where, as here, a district judge does not personally observe the witnesses in making a subjective finding of fact, we view such a finding with skepticism, especially where, as here, the finding is contrary to the one recommended by the judicial official who observed the witnesses.