Opinion ID: 772626
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Application of Wrong Legal Standard to Finding on Student Assignments

Text: 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