{"ID":55395,"name":"Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/2006\/05-915","view_count":0,"docket_number":"05-915","additional_docket_numbers":["05-908"],"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Writ of \u003Ci\u003Ecertiorari\u003C\/i\u003E","first_party":"Crystal D. Meredith, custodial parent and next friend of Joshua Ryan McDonald","second_party":"Jefferson County Board of Education et al.","timeline":[{"event":"Granted","dates":[1149483600],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/39700"},{"event":"Argued","dates":[1165212000],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/39701"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[1183006800],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/39702"}],"lower_court":{"ID":11,"name":"United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/taxonomy\/term\/11"},"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003EJefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) were integrated by court order until 2000. After its release from the order, JCPS implemented an enrollment plan to maintain substantial racial integration. Students were given a choice of schools, but not all schools could accommodate all applicants. In those cases, student enrollment was decided on the basis of several factors, including place of residence, school capacity, and random chance, as well as race. However, no school was allowed to have an enrollment of black students less than 15% or greater than 50% of its student population.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMeredith and other parents sued the school district, arguing that the plan\u0027s racial classifications violated the students\u0027 Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the laws. Under the Supreme Court\u0027s decisions in \u003Cem\u003EGrutter v. Bollinger\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Cem\u003EGratz v. Bollinger\u003C\/em\u003E, race-based classifications must be directed toward a \u0022compelling government interest\u0022 and must be \u0022narrowly tailored\u0022 to that interest.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe District Court ruled that the plan was constitutional because the school had a compelling interest in maintaining racial diversity. The court held that though the plan paid \u0022some attention to numbers,\u0022 it did not constitute a rigid quota system. According to the Supreme Court\u0027s precedents, rigid racial quotas are never narrowly tailored. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Court without issuing an opinion of its own, and Meredith appealed to the Supreme Court. (See also \u003Cem\u003EParents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District #1\u003C\/em\u003E, No. 05-908)\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003E1) Do \u003Cem\u003EGrutter v. Bollinger\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Cem\u003EGratz v. Bollinger\u003C\/em\u003E allow a school district to use race as the sole factor to assign high school students to public schools?\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E2) Can a student enrollment plan that requires each school\u0027s student population to be between 15% and 50% African-American meet the Fourteenth Amendment\u0027s requirement that racial classifications be narrowly tailored to a compelling government interest?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003ENo and no. By a 5-4 vote, the Court applied a \u0022strict scrutiny\u0022 framework and found Jefferson County\u0027s enrollment plan unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the plurality opinion that \u0022The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.\u0022 The Court acknowledged that it had previously held that racial diversity can be a compelling government interest in university admissions, but it ruled that \u0022[t]he present cases are not governed by \u003Cem\u003EGrutter\u003C\/em\u003E.\u0022 Unlike the cases pertaining to higher education, Jefferson County\u0027s plan involved no individualized consideration of students, and it employed a very limited notion of diversity (\u0022black\u0022 and \u0022other\u0022). Jefferson County\u0027s goal of preventing racial imbalance did not meet the Court\u0027s standards for a constitutionally legitimate use of race: \u0022Racial balancing is not transformed from \u0027patently unconstitutional\u0027 to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it \u0027racial diversity.\u0027\u0022 The plans also lacked the narrow tailoring that is necessary for race-conscious programs. The Court held that Jefferson County\u0027s enrollment plan was actually targeted toward demographic goals and not toward any demonstrable educational benefit from racial diversity. Jefferson County also failed to show that its objectives could not have been met with non-race-conscious means. In a separate opinion concurring in the judgment, Justice Kennedy agreed that Jefferson County\u0027s use of race was unconstitutional but stressed that public schools may sometimes consider race to ensure equal educational opportunity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","advocates":[{"advocate":{"ID":37772,"name":"Paul D. Clement","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/people\/paul_d_clement","view_count":0,"last_name":"Clement","roles":null,"thumbnail":null,"length_of_service":0,"identifier":"paul_d_clement"},"advocate_description":"argued the cause for Petitioner","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_advocate\/case_advocate\/19337"},{"advocate":{"ID":24377,"name":"Francis J. 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