Court Opinion

ID: 9458216
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:45:41.471479+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:40.581914
License: Public Domain

ON PETITIONS FOR REHEARING AND PETITIONS FOR REHEARING EN BANC
PER CURIAM:
Upon consideration of the petition for rehearing filed by the appellees, we modify that portion of the majority opinion which reversed the order of the district court upholding the sale of Thyatira School and remanding the case with directions that the district court enter an order invalidating the sale and directing reconveyance of the property to the Tate County Board of Education. We now vacate the order of the district court upholding the sale of Thyatira School, and remand the case to the district court with directions to enter an order upholding the sale of the school but enjoining the Tate County Foundation or its members, successors or assigns from using the property for the operation of a private school on a discriminatory basis. Such injunction of the district court shall provide that if the Thyatira School property is used for a private school, such school shall be operated without any discrimination of any kind or character based upon race, creed, color or national origin, and the doors of any such school shall be open at all times to all qualified applicants on an equal basis.
It appears to be appropriate to express a caveat to courts who in the future may have to consider the sale of public school property for use as a private school. Such a sale should be scru*575tinized with the utmost care and caution to the end that public school property shall not be converted to use by private schools which engage in forbidden discriminatory practices. We adhere to the principles announced in Wright v. City of Brighton, Alabama, 5 Cir. 1971, 441 F.2d 447.
Except for the modifications herein ordered, the petitions for rehearing are hereby denied and the Court having been polled at the request of one of the members of the Court and a majority of the Circuit Judges who are in regular active service not having voted in favor of it, (Rule 35 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Local Fifth Circuit Rule 12) the petitions for rehearing en banc are also denied.