Supreme Court: Race-Based Public School Diversity Plans Rejected

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued an opinion rejecting as unconstitutional two school districts' use of diversity plans that take students' race into account when assigning pupils to schools. Writing for the Court in the 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that "the school districts have not carried their heavy burden of showing that the interest they seek to achieve justifies the extreme means they have chosen--discriminating among individual students based on race by relying upon racial classifications in making school assignments." According to the Associated Press, "[t]he decision in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Kentucky, and Seattle could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide, and it further restricts how public school systems may attain racial diversity."

• Read the Decision: Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle Sch. Dist.
• AP News: Court Limits Schools Considering Race
• Race Discrimination in Education (FindLaw)