Milliken v. Bradley

418 U.S. 717 (1974)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The respondents attacked the constitutionality of a statute of the State of Michigan known as Act 48 on the ground that it put the State of Michigan in the position of unconstitutionally interfering with the execution and operation of a voluntary plan of partial high school desegregation, known as the April 7, 1970, Plan. Ps also alleged that the Detroit Public School System was and is segregated on the basis of race as a result of the official policies and actions of the defendants and their predecessors in office. The District Court found that the Detroit Board of Education created and maintained optional attendance zones within Detroit neighborhoods undergoing racial transition and between high school attendance areas of opposite predominant racial compositions. These zones, the court found, had the 'natural, probable, foreseeable and actual effect' of allowing white pupils to escape identifiably Negro schools. The Detroit Board admitted it bused Negro Detroit pupils to predominantly Negro schools which were beyond or away from closer white schools with available space. The District Court found that Detroit school construction policies generally tended to have a segregative effect, with the great majority of schools being built in either overwhelmingly all-Negro or all-white neighborhoods, so that the new schools opened as predominantly one-race schools. Thus, of the 14 schools which opened for use in 1970-1971, 11 opened over 90% Negro, and one opened less than 10% Negro. The District Court proceeded to order the Detroit Board of Education to submit desegregation plans limited to the segregation problems found to be existing within the city of Detroit. The state defendants were directed to submit desegregation plans encompassing the three-county metropolitan area despite the fact that the 85 outlying school districts of these three counties were not parties to the action and despite the fact that there had been no claim that these outlying districts had committed constitutional violations. On March 28, 1972, the District Court issued its findings and conclusions on the three Detroit-only plans submitted by the city Board and the respondents. It found that the plans would make the Detroit school system more identifiably Black . . . , thereby increasing the flight of Whites from the city and the system.' The District Court held that the defendants 'must look beyond the limits of the Detroit school district and then designated 53 of the 85 suburban school districts plus Detroit as the 'desegregation area,' and appointed a panel to prepare and submit 'an effective desegregation plan' for the Detroit schools that would encompass the entire desegregation area. The Court of Appeals reasoned that such a plan would be appropriate because of the State's violations, and could be implemented because of the State's authority to control local school districts.