Groundswell Intervenors Support
Challenge to Busing Order,
in Freeman v. Pitts, a Class Action,
to Restore Local Control of Student Assignment

... Lee shifted gears and closed with a discussion of federalism and the efficient allocation of resources. Under Dowell, he said, school systems should be run by local governing bodies, and not federal courts. For 22 years, DCSS has been trying to obey the law, but now, due to circumstances beyond its control, it's being told it will have to continue under court supervision for an indefinite length of time. Under the Eleventh Circuit's opinion, Lee noted, his clients are looking to more busing and radical gerrymandering....
 

An Amici Curiae brief was filed in support of the respondents Pitts, et al, a plaintiff-class of black students, by seven organizations, headed by the DeKalb County, Georgia, Branch of the NAACP, whose interest was stated as “representing individuals throughout the nation who share a critical interest in desegregation of public school systems.”

The NAACP Amici Allegations in Support of Respondents' Class of Students were as follows:

1. DCSS' own inability to implement an effective plan of school desegregation during a period of increasing residential segregation cannot be invoked to remove judicial supervision over DCSS to ensure that it fulfills its constitutional duty to desegregate in the area of student assignment.

2. Effective desegregation must be accomplished simultaneously for a substantial period of years in all major areas of school system operations before a former de jure segregated school system such as DCSS should be released from judicial supervision.

Annexed to their brief as the Appendix is a document dated June 1991 entitled School Desegregation: A Social Science Statement. Among the many social scientists signing that statement were two who testified in the
 

Dowell 

Board of Ed. of Oklahoma City v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237 (1990)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Enstrom: filed amici curiae brief
 

Freeman 

Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 112 S.Ct. 1430 (1992)
DeKalb County School System (DCSS),
DeKalb County, Georgia
Enstrom: filed amici curiae brief
 

— Handbook: Challenge Three, pages 45 - 54 —