Opinion ID: 531041
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Closing De Jure Black Schools

Text: 59 The DCSS has a continuing constitutional duty to achieve the greatest possible degree of desegregation and to prevent re-segregation. Columbus Board of Education, 443 U.S. at 460, 99 S.Ct. at 2948 (school board cannot perpetuate or re-establish the dual school system); Davis, 402 U.S. at 37, 91 S.Ct. at 1292 (make every effort to achieve the greatest possible degree of actual desegregation); Green, 391 U.S. at 440, 88 S.Ct. at 1695 (continuing duty to take whatever action might be necessary). The district court must continue to impose this duty on the DCSS until it removes all vestiges of the dual system. 60 The DCSS asserts that the district court could not hold it responsible for segregation not caused by its dual system. The DCSS cites Milliken II, 433 U.S. at 282, 97 S.Ct. at 2758 to support this assertion. We reject the DCSS's reading of Milliken II. The Milliken II Court did not require causation between each Green factor and a dual system. Rather, the Milliken II Court stated that federal-court decrees must directly address and relate to the constitutional violation itself.... [F]ederal-court decrees exceed appropriate limits if they are aimed at eliminating a condition that does not violate the Constitution or that does not flow from such a violation.... Milliken II, 433 U.S. at 281-82, 97 S.Ct. at 2757-58. As we stated earlier, the DCSS violated the Constitution by operating a dual system. Under Milliken II, federal court orders may address all vestiges of that system. Student segregation, prior to achieving unitary status, indicates that vestiges remain. Therefore, the DCSS must continue to work toward desegregation until it removes all vestiges. The fact that the DCSS achieved racial parity in the area of student assignment on the day it closed the de jure black schools does not demonstrate that it fulfilled its duties to achieve maximum possible desegregation and to avoid the reestablishment of a dual system. 61