Is the New School Integration Constitutional?

Louisville, KY - September 25, 2008

In the 2007 case of Meredith v. Jefferson Co. Bd. Of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the voluntary integration plan used by the Jefferson County Public Schools constituted unconstitutional racial discrimination. In response, the school district adopted a new plan. Is this new plan any more constitutional than the old system? A panel of local and national experts will discuss. [Register now!]

In the 2007 case of Meredith v. Jefferson Co. Bd. Of Education, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the voluntary integration plan used by the Jefferson County Public Schools constituted unconstitutional racial discrimination because it assigned students to schools on the basis of their race. Under the plan, most schools were required to be comprised of between 15% and 50% black students.

In response to the Supreme Court's decision, the Jefferson County School District adopted a new plan. As recently chronicled in the July 20, 2008, issue of the New York Times Magazine, the new plan puts Louisville at the forefront of a national movement to find a new way to increase racial diversity in its public schools. The new approach does not use the race of individual students to assign those students to a school. Rather, the new approach uses, among other things, the race of the student's neighbors. Under the new Jefferson County plan, most schools are required to be comprised of between 15% and 50% students from neighborhoods which meet three demographic characteristics: (1) their students are more non-white than average, (2) their households earn less income (per member) than the median, and (3) their adults have less educational attainment than average.

But is this new approach any more constitutional than the old system? Is it still a racial classification if assignments are no longer made on the basis of the race of individual students, but, rather, on the basis of the race of their neighbors? Does the fact that the new plan considers other neighborhood demographics in addition to racial demographics save the plan from constitutional infirmity? This panel of local and national experts will explore these and other questions.

Featuring:

• Ms. Anurima Bhargava, Counsel for NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Mr. Roger Clegg, Pres. & Gen. Counsel, Ctr. for Equal Opportunity
• Mr. Ted Gordon, Petitioner's Counsel, Meredith v. Jefferson Co. Bd. Of Educ. (U.S. 2007)
• Mr. Byron Leet, Wyatt Tarrant & Combs, Respondents' Counsel, Meredith v. Jefferson Co. Bd. Of Educ. (U.S. 2007)
• Moderator: Prof. Brian Fitzpatrick, Vanderbilt University Law School

The cost of this program is $25.00.
No Charge for government employees, students, summer associates, and press.

RSVP by September 19 (with check payable to Federalist Society) to:
John K. Bush
3500 National City Tower
101 South Fifth Street
Louisville, KY 40202
email: jkb@gdm.com