Justices to weigh race 'tiebreakers'

[Sapphire Blue]

Justices to weigh race 'tiebreakers'
Seattle schools at center of issue

By JESSICA BLANCHARD
P-I REPORTER

Attorneys for Seattle Public Schools and a group of Seattle parents will soon face off before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue one of the most important public-education cases since the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education desegregation case was decided in 1954.

Arguments begin Monday in Washington, D.C., over whether a school district can consider a student's race in deciding where he goes to school.

The case is being argued in tandem with a similar case out of Louisville, Ky., and has drawn national attention. More than 50 friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed in the case, with former U.S. secretaries of education, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and others weighing in.

The Bush administration has also intervened, and argues that the use of race, even on a voluntary basis, violates the equal protection guarantees in the 14th Amendment.

Continued @ http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/294512_race02.html?source=rss