December 5, 2005
Supreme Court Declines to Take School-Desegregation Case
By DAVID STOUT, NY TIMES
Correction Appended

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - The Supreme Court declined today to take a school-desegregation case from Lynn, Mass., thus leaving intact a lower court ruling that had overturned the school district's voluntary-transfer program.

Without comment, the justices declined to take the case of Comfort v. the Lynn School Committee, No. 05-348. The high court's refusal to take the case means that a 2004 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, is the last word.

At issue was a policy that racially mixed Lynn, about 10 miles northeast of Boston, adopted in 1989. The policy allowed all students to attend their neighborhood schools but considered the race of those who sought to attend a different school.

In most cases, students were not allowed to move into, or out of, a racially unbalanced school if the move would increase the imbalance at either the sending school or the receiving school.

When the plan was adopted, four of Lynn's elementary schools were at least 95 percent white, four others were largely minority and racial polarization and white flight were increasing. Attendance rates and test schools in the school system were generally poor.

"Since the inception of the Lynn plan, the school system has experienced many positive changes, such as higher attendance rates, declining suspension rates, a safer environment, and apparent academic gains," Judge Bruce M. Selya of the First Circuit wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel on Oct. 20, 2004.

But the panel found fatal flaws in the plan: it relied too much on racial distinctions and was not flexible enough.

"Although the Lynn plan is not a pure quota system, it uses race mechanically both to deprive some individuals of a desired benefit and to grant the same benefit to others," the judges held in declaring that school officials had to rework their program.

"Because the Lynn plan makes race decisive and forgoes individualized consideration of transfer applications, it cannot be deemed narrowly tailored to the community's compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits of diversity," they continued.

The First Circuit panel overturned a district court ruling that had thrown out a suit by the parents of some students who were denied transfers. The panel's ruling was later upheld by the entire First Circuit.

Reactions to the First Circuit's ruling have varied. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund called it "a setback for civil rights advocates" and said that the Lynn plan was "sensitively designed and remarkably successful."

On the other hand, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said the ruling was "a significant landmark that should embolden K-12 grand schools to use racial diversity and integration to improve the educational opportunities of their students without fear of legal retribution."

Correction: An article on NYTimes.com on Monday about the Supreme Court's refusal to consider a challenge to a school-choice plan in Lynn, Mass., misstated the current legal status of the program. A ruling on Oct. 20, 2004, in which a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, found fault with the plan, was not the most recent appeals court ruling on the case. It was reversed by the full court, which ruled last June 16 that the voluntary-transfer program to achieve racial diversity "has produced benefits central to Lynn's educational mission" and has avoided the rigid use of quotas.

U.S. Supreme Court won't review school race case
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 5, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether school districts can use race as a factor in assigning students to schools beyond their neighborhoods.

Justices rejected a challenge to a system in the Boston suburb of Lynn, which allows race to be considered when children request transfers to schools outside their neighborhoods.

The Supreme Court last dealt with the issue of race in education in 2003, when justices upheld affirmative action at a public law school.

Supporters of the Lynn policy contend that it has made the city's classrooms racially mixed, benefiting all students. Transfer requests can be turned down if school leaders believe the assignment would further segregate either the student's neighborhood school or the requested school.

The policy was contested by parents of six children who were turned down for transfers. They argued that factors beyond race should be considered, such as socio-economic status, family structure and language spoken at home.

The parents lost at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the city has a "compelling interest" in receiving the educational benefits of racial diversity. The high court did not comment in refusing to hear their appeal.

The case is Comfort v. The Lynn School Committee, 05-348.