United States First Circuit

Certain features of a voluntary plan for scholastic improvement and elimination of racial isolation adopted by a K-12 school fails to survive under the strict scrutiny test. The plan is not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest for the following reasons: 1) the mechanical use of race, 2) a design sculpted more to the achievement of racial balancing rather than to the educational benefits flowing from the attainment of critical mass, 3) the failure fully to explore the feasibility of race-neutral alternatives, and 4) the absence of a commitment to periodic review.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/16/2005
• Published 06/17/2005

Judges

• Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA, SELYA, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Michael Williams, with whom Robert J. Roughsedge, Chester Darling, and Citizens for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights were on brief, for plaintiffs., Sharon L. Browne on brief for Pacific Legal Foundation, amicus curiae., Edward J. Barshak and Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C. on brief for Asian-American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts, Boston Bar Association, Community Change, Inc., Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, New England Area Conference of the NAACP, and Greater Boston Civil Rights Coalition, amici curiae., Patricia A. Brannan, Maree Sneed, and Hogan & Hartson, LLP on brief for Council of the Great City Schools, American Association of School Administrators, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Education Association, National School Boards Association and Public Education Network, amici curiae., Nathalie F.P. Gilfoyle, General Counsel, Lindsay Childress-Beatty, Deputy General Counsel, David W. Ogden, and Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, LLP on brief for American Psychological Association, amicus curiae., Theodore M. Shaw, Director-Counsel, Norman J. Chachkin, and Chin Quang Le on brief for Northshore Branch of the NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense & Educ. Fund, Inc., Lawyers' Comm. for Civil Right of the Boston Bar Association, and various individuals, amici curiae., Donna Brewer MacKenna and Casner & Edwards, LLP on brief for Lynn Business Education Foundation and Lynn Business Partnership, Inc., amici curiae., Thomas Miller, Attorney General (Iowa), Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General (New York), Caitlin J. Halligan, Solicitor General (New York), Michelle Aronowitz, Deputy Solicitor General (New York), Natalie R. Williams, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Hilary B. Klein, Assistant Attorney General (New York), G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General (Maine), and Mark L. Shurtleff, Attorney General (Utah), on brief for States of Iowa, New York, Maine, and Utah, amici curiae., Thomas J. Henderson, Derek Black, Harris J. Yale, Bernadette McCann Ezring, Samantha G. Fisherman, Virginia Johnson, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP on brief for Lawyers' Comm. for Civil Rights Under Law, amicus curiae., David B. Broughel and Day, Berry & Howard, LLP on brief for Mass. Coalition for Equitable Educ., Mass. Teachers Ass'n, Mass. Fed'n of Teachers, Mass. Ass'n of Sch. Superintendents, Metro Council for Educ. Opportunity, Inc., Center for Law and Educ., Citizens for Pub. Sch., Mass. Ass'n of Hispanic Attorneys, League of Women Voters of Mass., Mass. Law Reform Inst., Alliance for High Standards NOT High Stakes, Schott Center for Public and Early Educ., Nat'l Center for Fair & Open Testing, and Progressive Jewish Alliance, amici curiae., Angelo N. Ancheta on brief for Civil Rights Project at Harvard Univ., amicus curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Richard W. Cole, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Thomas F. Reilly, Attorney General, and John R. Hitt, Assistant Attorney General, were on brief, for state defendants., James P. Lamanna, Assistant City Solicitor, and John C. Mihos on consolidated brief for municipal defendants.