Washington v. Seattle School District

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).

Further Readings

• Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Rosen, Jeffrey. "Stare Indecisis: Harry Blackmun v. CCRI." The New Republic, December 23, 1996, p. 14.
• Stearns, Maxwell L. "The Misguided Renaissance of Social Choice." Yale Law Journal, March 1994, p. 1219.