Justice Breyer: "This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret."

[Hissyspit]

http://scotusblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/05-908.pdf

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/28/breaking-supreme-court-limits-use-of-race-for-assigning-students-in-public-schools/

In the “biggest school desegregation ruling in more than a decade,” the Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 to reject public school assignment plans “that take account of students’ race.”

In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer writes:

Finally, what of the hope and promise of Brown? For much of this Nation’s history, the races remained divided. It was not long ago that people of different races drank from separate fountains, rode on separate buses, and studied in separate schools. In this Court’s finest hour, Brown v. Board of Education challenged this history and helped to change it. For Brown held out a promise. … It sought one law, one Nation, one people, not simply as a matter of legal principle but in terms of how we actually live. ...

Many parents, white and black alike, want their children to attend schools with children of different races. Indeed, the very school districts that once spurned integration now strive for it. … The plurality would decline their modest request.

The plurality is wrong to do so. The last half-century has witnessed great strides toward racial equality, but we have not yet realized the promise of Brown. To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown. The plurality’s position, I fear, would break that promise. This is a decision that the Court and the Nation will come to regret.

UPDATE IV: In his opinion for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts writes, “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin.”

But as Justice John Paul Stevens notes in his separate dissent, there is a “cruel irony” in Roberts’s reliance on Brown:

The Chief Justice fails to note that it was only black schoolchildren who were so ordered; indeed, the history books do not tell stories of white children struggling to attend black schools. In this and other ways, the Chief Justice rewrites the history of one of this Court’s most important decisions.

[blondeatlast]

1. 50 years of immeasurable progress undone in 6 years--with possibly worse to come.

Democracy died when the NeoCons took over the SCOTUS.

[Stop Cornyn]

16. "...with *possibly* worse to come..."? Not "possibly" - it's certain.

[blondeatlast]

17. Sigh--I'm ever the optimist, but I know deep down you are correct. nt

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. More accurate: 230 years of progress undone. Well, okay, make it 800 years...

if you count habeas corpus.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

2. It is an aweful, aweful, aweful decision. Watch how the country unravels,...

,...because of this STUPID freakin' decision. I'm still in shock!!! I am more sad than I've felt the last several years about all the God aweful shit that's happened.

[Raskolnik]

21. With all due respect, you haven't really made clear what the opinion got wrong

Do you think the Court should have extended the Croson series of cases? Do you think this case was closer to Grutter than the Court acknowledged?

The schools did not have good facts on their side for this issue--they implemented a rather ham-fisted integration program that didn't conform (in several respects) to the Court's model of an acceptable segregation remedy.

[loyalkydem]

3. I'm not surprise

All of this is going to boil down to race. God, I never thought this day would come. I fear for what this country will become.

[OHdem10]

4. The Court is now a Right Wing Court.

"Never have so few done so much in such a short time"
Justice Breyer apparently referencing the addition of
Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts.

Which will be next?? Reversing Affirmative Action or
Reversing Roe V Wade. No doubt Affirmative Action
is in their sights.

The Conservatives got their Win today.

[woodsprite]

5. This may be what our district needs to force it back to "neighborhood schools"

One of the largest minorities areas in our county was made part of our district when districts were munged due to deseg. Our 'district' is split by other districts and many miles of I-95. Their children and our children have been bussed all around the school district since the 1982 school year. In some areas, the kids spend over 1.5 hours on the bus. This is still happening when there are empty neighborhood schools sitting in the effected towns. How much money has been spent on transporting all these students for all these years that could have gone into keeping our local school buildings kept up and operational. We just won a coup in our district. The district powers-that-be wanted to 'sell off' some of these empty or 'underutilized' neighborhood schools to build a big brand new school on the outskirts of the district. For now, the neighborhood schools have won, thank goodness. The miniorities in our area want the same thing the non-minorities do for their kids - good neighborhood schools, access to technology, local extra-curricular music and sports programs, and not having to get the kids up at 5am to catch the bus and get home at 4pm.

BTW, the reason the schools are underutilized is that ALOT of people are sending their kids to public 'charter' schools which are actually in their neighbor and not regulated by these district rules.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

9. I believe you're talking about a different issue involving budetary squeezes,...

,...on public schools. There is only one high school in the county I live in. JUST ONE IN THE WHOLE COUNTY!!!

The reason is simple: there is inadequate money to finance the materials and equipment necessary for more than one school. That issue has to do with the decreasing funds for public schools.

The SCOTUS decision had to do with affirmative action activities. That decision certainly does nothing to address financial concerns. To the contrary, now we will witness nefarious activities by wrong-hearted individuals,...leaving poor minority kids behind. It's a goshdamned SHAME.

SHAME ON THE SCOTUS!!! SHAME!! SHAME!! SHAME!!!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. This is a dark day in the history of our country. How will MSM gloss over this? Ignore this?

Any runaway brides on the horizon? How many times Paris Hilton has taken a crap today? Blondes, blondes, blondes? Oh yeah, making a cat fight over Elizabeth Edwards confronting the ice-veined, harpy - Coultergeist.
:cry:

[glowing]

7. Personally, I agree with school choice, more than a race card.

In this area certain highschools have magnate programs.. some gear towards arts and music, some math and science... When you apply, its almost like trying to get into college.

Now, in the case of elementary and middle school, I think that it really is better to go to a local school. All schools should, in theory, have the same resources and educational abilities. I would personally wish that my child attend a school, especially a 5 yr old, close to home, not an 1hr away on the other side of the county.

And this issue of race is not as big to the kids as it was back in the day when the original decision came around. My 2 yr old son plays with a little black girl and a little spanish boy quite regularly. In fact, on the play ground, kids really don't know someone is "bad" or "wrong" to play with unless the adults tell them so.

I suppose though, I live in FL. There are a lot of different races within this area. I, however, grew up in VT. It is very hard to find any variation. I grew up with white kids. You went to the town school. There was no choice. I would have loved to have had the choice of going to a highschool that geared me towards math and science. When I attended college, I had a lot of catching up to do because my school did not have the resources to offer more.

Sometimes in this country we make laws because they are needed to equalize a divide. There are other times that we need to realize that at some point "equality for all" is actually working and continuing the racial divide by these laws works against the "equality for all" notion. I think that by the time my child is of voting age, and the segregationist are mostly dead or riddled with age and alzheimer's, we may be able to look on this as history and stick it in the history file.

I want my resume and my aptitude to be judged equally with everyone. I don't want to fill the quota at a company because I am a woman, but not hired because I am a woman. Its hard to ensure equality. Lately, it seems to me, that only the rich people are truly free, the rest of us stuck on a rat wheel going no where, fighting like chickens for the last pieces of corn, when in reality we should gang up and bite the old farmer in the ass and make him drop the pail so we all have more to eat.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

10. *grrrr* "race card" *grrrr*

STUNNING!!!

Why confuse financial issues with the RW meme of "race card"?

:grr:

[glowing]

14. Like I said... if everyone woke up and realized who was really working

against them, we wouldn't have so many divisive issues in America.

Its like this immigration issue.. Who cares? Legalize everyone, give them citizenship status. Guess what, corporations would now face 12 million legal workers who want the same rights citizens enjoy. How horrible for the corporations.

If you are an American citizen you are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I grew up believing in this principal. I don't care if you are a purple gnome, if you are a citizen, you are entitled to the democratic principle. I do not harbor ill will towards anyone because of the pigmatation of their skin or because of someone they love or because they pray to a different god. I may choose not to associate with an individual, however, once I get to know them or their character... Like Dick Cheney, I would probably become violently ill by being in the same room as it. So, all these little flutterbugs... immigration, gay marriage, etc, etc, etc are designed to make you turn your head away from the people who are ruining the constition.

[BlooInBloo]

26. It's no *confusion* on the poster's part.

[Flying Dream Blues]

8. I'm stunned. What's worse is that they are spinning it as if it's

a GOOD thing for desegregation!!! What a load of horsesh**! I'm just beyond words. Everything they say is the opposite of the truth. I just can't believe we are going backwards at this point in time.

Rev. King must be appalled. I know I am. And I'm grieving for what we've allowed this country to become.

[fishwax]

12. Brown wasn't about racism, it was about school choice!

:crazy: :puke:

Seriously, though, that kind of revisionism is SOP for this administration and their allies, just as they've been trying to twist the words of MLK for years to argue against affirmative action, etc.

[Major Hogwash]

11. This may be true, but Congress can address this issue that will pass the SC.

Even though this decision stinks, Congress can soon pass a bill that will relieve the Supreme Court judges of any anxiety they may have had with existing law.

Don't give up hope. - MLK

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

28. We live in a nation ruled by a cabal that does not respect the balance of power.

Worse, that cabal is willing and able to do whatever necessary to retain its own power over this nation.

My last hope is this: there are enough people loyal to the democratic institution and our Constitution and the rule of law who will BREAK FROM THE BANKRUPTCY OF REASON AND VALUES AND COMPASSION that has been imposed upon this nation via intentional psy-ops by this totally fucked-up administration (the inhuman thugs that they are,...and have been since Nixon).

I can only hope,...but can no longer invest myself in this country. I can't. I can NOT accept a nation that is ruled by men and their self-services rather than laws,...a nation ruled by greed and power rather than the institution of democratic means to avoid dictatorship over people. I can't. Enough.

[malaise]

13. Let them behave like fascists

the people will soon take the streets. Ithappened before, it will happen again.

[bdamomma]

25. history repeats itself, and it is now our turn to do something.

[porphyrian]

15. The republicants want a civil war to help cover their crimes.

This is just another part of trying to instigate it.

[truebrit71]

19. I am SOOOOOOOOOOO glad our Brave Dem Leaders kept their powder dry...

....fucking IDIOTS!!!

Are there anymore questions as to whether Roe V Wade is now all but dead? If an abortion case makes it to these Reich-Wing Activist Judges and their Kangaroo Court, women in this country will once again be second-class citizens...

FUCK THE DEMOCRATS!!!!

They should have FORCED the nuclear option...they should have STOOD UP AND BEEN COUNTED...but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO they fucking retreated.....

I hope they're really fucking pleased with themselves today...

Bunch of goddamned cowards.... :grr:

[Progressive_In_NC]

20. Doesn't help us here in raleigh, nc

where kids are bussed for hours to schools across town based on socio-economic factors (they balance the free and reduced lunch roles out across schools to ensure more federal money). Our neighborhood is very racially mixed and the folks of color on my street want an end to this forced busing.

Their kids are spending 3 hours a day on a bus in some cases, in addition to seven hours plus of school. Most parents, black and white just want it to change, and have a neighborhood choice.

I don't think it will ever happen.

[ananda]

22. No doubt much worse will come.

These are simply signs of encouragement for
corporate, rightwing, hatemongers to continue
suing and winning.

Ugghh. Puke.

[blondeatlast]

23. I hate to tell you but--they overturned the Sherman act regarding

price-fixing and anti-trust.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1204347

At this point, we may as well just assume it'll get worse.

[Nikki Stone1]

24. Add that to this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1204347

[ThomCat]

27. We are only just beginning to enter a very dismal period of history.

They are going to keep dismantling everything good in our society. They are going to keep enabling prejudices, discrimition, and corporate excess. As all of these decisions come out, and as the implementation of those decisions spread across our landscape, it's going to get very ugly.

It's depressing to see decades of volunteer work, advocacy and struggle buried this way. :cry:

[blondeatlast]

29. I've got a 10 year old son. When we decided to have a child, all seemed

bright for him. He's mixed race, and now I fear for his chances in this nation, not to mention what's happening with civil rights and anti-trust law.

[ThomCat]

30. I hope he's a strong and talented child.

He may need to be. :(

[blondeatlast]

31. Dammit--now I am crying. Fortunately, he is--and Mr. B has prospects

overseas if it comes to tha--and it may... :cry:

[Supersedeas]

32. Roberts and Alito are the white knights of WASPism