swann v. Charlotte mecklenburg board of education
Year: 1971
Result: 9-0, favor Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education
Related Constitutional issue/Amendment: 14th Amendment (Equal Protection)
Civil rights or Civil liberties: Civil rights
Significance/precedent: After the Brown v. Board decision, schools were required to desegregate. However, schools were being desegregated too slowly. The court ruled that it was constitutional for the states to take more significant steps to desegregate schools. The main precedent set by the Court was the promotion of busing.
Quote from majority opinion: “The central issue in this case is that of student assignment, and there are essentially four problem areas:
to what extent racial balance or racial quotas may be used as an implement in a remedial order to correct a previously segregated system;
whether every all-Negro and all-white school must be eliminated as an indispensable part of a remedial process of desegregation;
what the limits are, if any, on the rearrangement of school districts and attendance zones, as a remedial measure; and
what the limits are, if any, on the use of transportation facilities to correct state-enforced racial school segregation.”
6-word summary: Desegregational Busing; constitutional method of integration
Result: 9-0, favor Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education
Related Constitutional issue/Amendment: 14th Amendment (Equal Protection)
Civil rights or Civil liberties: Civil rights
Significance/precedent: After the Brown v. Board decision, schools were required to desegregate. However, schools were being desegregated too slowly. The court ruled that it was constitutional for the states to take more significant steps to desegregate schools. The main precedent set by the Court was the promotion of busing.
Quote from majority opinion: “The central issue in this case is that of student assignment, and there are essentially four problem areas:
to what extent racial balance or racial quotas may be used as an implement in a remedial order to correct a previously segregated system;
whether every all-Negro and all-white school must be eliminated as an indispensable part of a remedial process of desegregation;
what the limits are, if any, on the rearrangement of school districts and attendance zones, as a remedial measure; and
what the limits are, if any, on the use of transportation facilities to correct state-enforced racial school segregation.”
6-word summary: Desegregational Busing; constitutional method of integration