Opinion ID: 792253
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Sunset Provision

Text: 114 A narrowly tailored plan must be limited not only in scope, but also in time. Grutter, 539 U.S. at 342, 123 S.Ct. 2325. The Court held in Grutter that this durational requirement can be met by periodic reviews to determine whether racial preferences are still necessary to achieve student body diversity. Id. The District's Plan includes such reviews. It revisits the Plan annually and has demonstrated its ability to be responsive to parents' and students' choice patterns and to the concerns of its constituents. For example, in 2000, when a higher than normal number of students selected the same schools, the Board responded by increasing the race-based trigger from 10 percent to a 15 percent deviation from the school population, adopting the thermostat that turns off the tiebreaker as soon as the school has come within the 15 percent plus or minus trigger point and by using the tiebreaker solely for the incoming ninth grade class. 115 With respect to the dissent's concern for a logical end point, Bea, J., dissenting, infra. at 1217, like Justice O'Connor this court shares in the hope that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today. Grutter, 539 U.S. at 343, 123 S.Ct. 2325. We expect that the District will continue to review its Plan, and we presume, as did the Court in Grutter, that school officials will demonstrate a good faith commitment to monitoring the continued need for the race-based tiebreaker and terminating its use when that need ends. 37 See 539 U.S. at 343, 123 S.Ct. 2325.