High Court Undermines Promise of Brown, Issues Decision Overtuning Voluntary School Integration

Alliance for Justice Statement on Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District

Today's Supreme Court decision undermines the promise of Brown v. Board of Education while blatantly ignoring the continuing impact of racial inequality in this country," said Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron.  "Despite their laudatory descriptions of Brown in their confirmation hearings – and their promises to follow precedent, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito have taken the first opportunity they had to undercut the reasoning of that landmark case.  By barring public school districts from assigning students on the basis of race, the Court has undone years of precedent and disregarded settled federal law.  Once again, the spotlight is being placed on the real-life consequences of President Bush's stacking the federal judiciary with arch-conservative judges."

In a decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, and joined by Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas and with Justice Kennedy joining in the result, the Supreme Court struck down two voluntary school integration programs that used race as a factor in assigning children to particular public schools.  The Court's decision impedes diversity in local schools and limits the ability of local school districts to make decisions about what works best for their own communities.

During his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Justice Alito described Brown v. Board of Education as "one of the greatest, if not the single greatest thing, that the Supreme Court of the United States has ever done."  Chief Justice Roberts said the case "changed the course of American history" and that it put the Supreme Court "in the role of vindicating the vision of justice that the framers enacted in the Constitution."  They also both promised to follow precedent.

However, as lawyers in the Reagan administration, John Roberts and Samuel Alito both opposed race-conscious policies with Alito saying he was "particularly proud" of his efforts to squelch affirmative action policies.  Aron added, "Their records turned out to be a better indicator than their rhetoric of the positions they would take on the bench."

What is also clear from today's decision is that the new composition of the Court has had a harmful impact on people across this nation.  In 2003, with Justice O'Connor on the bench, the Supreme Court ruled to preserve affirmative action practices in higher education.  Just four years later, her replacement has moved the nation backwards on key civil rights protections.

"The confirmations of Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts sounded the death knell for many fundamental constitutional protections on which the American people have come to rely," Aron noted.  "The Supreme Court plays a profound and fundamental role in American life and it is vital that every American demand fair-minded nominees who will stand up for the promise of equal justice under law," concluded Aron.

ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE FACT SHEET: The Alito and Roberts Effect and Voluntary Integration (pdf)