By The Editors

On June 11th, 2009, the California Supreme Court decided not to review a case challenging the student assignment plan in Berkeley, California, which means that the California Appellate Court’s March 17, 2009 decision upholding the plan stands. In 2006, a lawsuit was filed challenging Berkeley’s plan, which seeks to promote diversity in Berkeley schools by taking account of the demographics of the neighborhoods where students live, including parental education level; family income; and race and/or ethnicity.

“As this case comes to a close, those that recognize the importance of a diverse learning environment and believe that opportunity should be equally afforded to all have prevailed yet again,” said John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel.

The California Appellate Court upheld Berkeley’s plan because it considers the racial makeup of neighborhoods, rather than characteristics of individual students, in assigning students and therefore does not constitute discrimination or the granting of a preference based on race in violation of California’s Proposition 209. The appellate court’s decision appropriately recognized the importance of school district efforts to bring students together across lines of race and class and to provide access and opportunities to students who live in areas of concentrated disadvantage. In 2007, the United States Supreme Court similarly recognized the importance of efforts to promote diversity and avoid racial isolation in schools in Seattle and Louisville, and the ability of school districts to take account of neighborhood demographics, including race, as part of those efforts.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) along with the ACLU of Northern California, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the ACLU of Southern California, successfully represented a group of parents who intervened to protect the student assignment plan against a challenge from Ward Connerly’s American Civil Rights Foundation.