Editorial Roundup: Supreme Court Turns Its Back on American Ideals

June 29, 2007 -- Across the country, people expressed dismay at yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that turned back the clock on 53 years of work by schools around the country to provide all children with a quality education. Editorial boards echoed the sentiment saying that the Court “repudiated the last half-century of race-conscious efforts to overcome that tortured racial legacy,” “will accelerate the trend toward school resegregation in many parts of the country,” and that in the “name of abiding by the letter of Brown, the court has dishonored its spirit.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement following the Supreme Court ruling:

“Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling was a huge blow to the American ideals of fairness, equality, diversity, equal justice under the law and opportunity for all,” Dean said. “President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees promised to uphold precedent, but have since proven time and again that they will reinterpret the law to serve only a select group of Americans and special interest groups. Yesterday’s ruling is a step backward, but is also a call to action. The struggle for equality is far from over, and Democrats will work to ensure that all Americans are given the opportunity to succeed.”

The following are excerpts from recent editorials from across the country in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday:

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY): Thwarting Equity. “It is that tradition of progress thwarted and promise withdrawn to which the Court’s new conservative majority returned today, when it repudiated the last half-century of race-conscious efforts to overcome that tortured racial legacy…As a result, the near total racial isolation and educational despair that pervade so many American cities today are considered constitutionally just; the racial diversity and educational opportunity that Jefferson County has voluntarily and proudly attained are rejected as constitutionally unjust.” [The Courier-Journal, Link, 6/29/07]

St. Petersburg Times: A step backward for school diversity. “A closely divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sharply limited the ability of public schools to use race to achieve diversity in the classroom. The disappointing ruling leaves school districts with only broad concepts for managing racial diversity and, we fear, will accelerate the trend toward school resegregation in many parts of the country…Good faith will be required more than ever on the part of communities and school districts committed to integrated schools. On this worthy goal, the court has taken the nation backward.” [St. Petersburg Times, http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/29/Opinion/A_step_backward_for_s.shtml, 6/29/07]

Boston Globe: Still Unequal. “Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling against two public school desegregation plans took useful tools away from school districts, and revealed once again the court's conservative tilt. The public can debate the court's legal reasoning, but for school districts the crucial tasks are still to find legal ways to end segregation and to produce high levels of achievement for all students…It is both a moral and economic necessity to bridge the divides of race.”
[Boston Globe, Link, 6/29/07]

Los Angeles Times: Fracturing a Landmark
“Saving the worst for last for last, the Supreme Court ended its 2006-07 term Thursday by rebuking two school districts that had made good-faith efforts to realize the vision of the court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education — an America in which children of different races share the same classroom…In the name of abiding by the letter of Brown, the court has dishonored its spirit.” [Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-schools29jun29,0,4437025.story..., 6/29/07]

Washington Post: A Blow to Brown. “Yesterday, a splintered Supreme Court, invoking the language of Brown but ignoring its context and undermining its intent, ruled that the Constitution forbids school systems from taking certain steps to maintain integrated schools. But the court's action, at a time when the nation's schools are increasingly resegregating, threatens voluntary efforts to achieve the integrated public schools that were the promise of Brown. As Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the four dissenters, "This cannot be justified in the name of the Equal Protection Clause.” [Washington Post, Link, 6/29/07]

Source: DNC