Washington v. Seattle School District - Significance, A Thorny Problem, Resistance To Change, Legal Remedies, The Power Of The State

appellants court william decision

Appellants

State of Washington, et al.

Appellees

Seattle School District Number 1, et al.

Appellants' Claim

That Initiative 350, a state law prohibiting busing of school children under certain circumstances, was constitutional and binding upon the Seattle school system.

Chief Lawyer for Appellants

Kenneth O. Eikenberry

Chief Lawyer for Appellees

Michael W. Hoge

Justices for the Court

Harry A. Blackmun (writing for the Court), William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

Warren E. Burger, Sandra Day O'Connor, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. William H. Rehnquist

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

30 June 1982

Decision

Affirmed the rulings of two lower courts, holding that Initiative 350 violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by creating an unconstitutional classification based solely on race.

Related Cases

Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U.S. 391 (1969).
Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 769 (1974).
Crawford v. Board of Education of Los Angeles, 458 U.S. 527 (1982).

Washington v. Seattle School District - A Thorny Problem

In the early 1970s school districts throughout the United States were faced with a dilemma: their school systems were racially segregated in a manner reminiscent of the "separate but equal" era in the South prior to the Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). This segregation was not the product of policy or public design, but had arisen through development patterns created by the ac…

Washington v. Seattle School District - Resistance To Change

Before the Seattle plan could be implemented, strong public opposition arose to its provisions. In the fall of 1977 a political organization known as the Citizens for Voluntary Integration Committee (CIVIC) was formed to bar the implementation of the Seattle plan. CIVIC sponsored ballot Initiative 350 for consideration by the state electorate in November of 1978. Initiative 350 placed restrictions…

Washington v. Seattle School District - Legal Remedies

Following the passage of Initiative 350, its constitutionality under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was challenged by the district in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The district court upheld the school's claim, noting that the most overcrowded schools in the district were those with the highest percentage of minority students, and that Init…

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