Liddell v. State of Missouri Opinion of the Court En Banc

Public Court Documents
February 8, 1984

Liddell v. State of Missouri Opinion of the Court En Banc preview

Cite this item

  • Brief Collection, LDF Court Filings. Liddell v. State of Missouri Opinion of the Court En Banc, 1984. 44fb0049-bb9a-ee11-be36-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/7210ae0f-587b-4541-84f8-f0a0bd15cbd8/liddell-v-state-of-missouri-opinion-of-the-court-en-banc. Accessed June 06, 2025.

    Copied!

    United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

No. 83-1957

Craton Liddell, a minor, by Minnie Liddell, 
his mother and next friend, and Minnie 
Liddell; Joanna Goldsby, a minor, by Barbara 
Goldsby, her mother and next friend, and 
Barbara Goldsby; Deborah Yarber, a minor, 
by Samuel Yarber, her father and next friend, 
and Samuel Yarber; Natalie Moore, a minor, 
by Louise Moore, her mother and next friend, 
and Louise Moore; Rochelle LeGrand, a minor, 
by Lois LeGrand, her mother and next friend, 
and Lois LeGrand; on behalf of themselves 
and all other school age children and their 
parents residing in the roetropolitan school 
district of the City of St. Louis,
Missour i ,

Appellees,
Earline Caldwell, Liddie Caldwell, Denise 
Daniels, Dwayne Daniels, Gwendolyn Daniels, 
Cedric Williams, Stephanie Williams, Gloria 
Williams, Janis Hutcherson, Robert Smith, 
Eddie S. Willi3, and the National Associ­
ation for the Advancement of Colored People,

Appellees,
City of St. Louis,
United States of America,
Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, 
State of Missouri, Daniel L. Schlafly, 
Frederick E. Bussee, Gordon L. Benson,
Malcolm W. Martin, Mrs. Anita L. Bond,
Mrs. Joyce Bowen, Henry M. Grich, Jr. 
(Secretary), Rev. James L. Cummings 
(President), Mrs. Erma J. Lawrence,
Rev. Donald E. Mayer (Vice President), 
Lawrence Moser, Charles Harris (Members of 
the School Board); and Julius C. Dix, 
Benjamin M. Price, Robert W. Bernthal,
Davis J. Mahan, Charles Brasfield (School 
District Superintendents); and Robert B.
Wentz (Superintendent of Schools), all in 
their official capacitites.

Appellees,



*

of

of

St Louis County, Gene McNary, County 
Executive; Harlow Richardson, CountyGeorge C. Le.chman Collection
St. Louis County Contract Account,
Affton Board of Education, Bayless Board of 
Educat ion, Brentwood Board of Education, 
ClaytonBoard of Education, Ferguson- 
Florissant Reorganized R-2, Hancock Place 
Board of Education, Hazelwood Board of 
Education, Jennings Board of Education, 
Kirkwood Board of Education, Ladue Board 
Education, Lindbergh Board of Education,
^ l er r “ iUee^aJd SrSduSStion.
Normtnd? Board of Education, Parkway Board

S  M -c tion.
Over v i ew Gardens Board of Education, 
Rockwood Board of Education, Valley Park 
Board of Education, University City Board 
Education, Webster Groves Board of 
Education and Wellston Board of Education,

*
*

of

Appellees,

in his official capacity; The State ° Missouri Board of Education; Christopher S. 
Bind Governor of the State of StateJohn Ashcroft, Attorney General of the State
of Missouri; Melvin E. Carnahan, 
nf the State of Missouri; Stephen u., - j rnmirii ioner of Adniinistration of 
the^State oHllssou?!; ?he State of Missouri 
Board of Education and its inen'̂ e^s%  ^ in Williamson (President), Jinuny Robertso 
(Vice President), Grover A,
Cobble, Dale M. Thompson, 
and Robert Welling,

Gamm, Delmar A. 
Donald W. Shelton

★
★
♦
*
★
★
★
★
★
*
*
*
*
♦
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
♦
*
*
*
*
i t

i t

i t

Appeal from the 
States District 
for the Eastern 
District of Mis

United
Court
sour i.

Appellants.



No. 83-2033

Craton Liddell, a minor, by Minnie Liddell, 
his mother and next friend, and Minnie 
Liddell; Joanna Goldsby, a minor, by Barbara 
Goldsby, her mother and next friend, and 
Barbara Goldsby; Deborah Yarber, a minor, by 
Samuel Yarber, her father and next friend, 
and Samuel Yarber; Natalie Moore, a minor, 
by Louise Moore, her mother and next friend, 
and Louise Moore; Rochelle LeGrand, a minor, 
by Lois LeGrand, her mother and next friend, 
and Lois LeGrand; on behalf of themselves 
and all other school age children and their 
parents residing in the metropolitan school 
district of the City of St. Louis, Missouri,

★
*
★
★
★
★
★
♦
★
*
★
★
★
*
*

Appellees, * ★
Earline Caldwell, Liddie Caldwell, Denise *
Daniels, Dwayne Daniels, Gwendolyn Daniels, * 
Cedric Williams, Stephanie Williams, Gloria * 
Williams, Janis Hutcherson, Robert Smith, *
Eddie S. Willis, and the National Associ- *
ation for the Advancement of Colored People, **

Appellees, * *
City of St. Louis, *
United States of America, *

Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, 
State of Missouri, Daniel L. Schlafly, 
Frederick E. Bussee, Gordon L. Benson, 
Malcolm W. Martin, Mrs. Anita L. Bond,
Mrs. Joyce Bowen, Henry M. Grich, Jr. 
(Secretary), Rev. James L. Cummings 
(President), Mrs. Erma J. Lawrence,
Rev. Donald E. Mayer (Vice President), 
Lawrence Moser, Charles Harris (Members of 
the School Board); and Julius C. Dix, 
Benjamin M. Price, Robert W. Bernthal,
David J. Mahan, Charles Brasfield (School 
District Superintendents); and Robert E. 
Wentz (Superintendent of Schools), all in 
their official capacities,

Appellees,

*
*

★
*
★
*

*
★
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*

St. Louis County, Gene McNary, County 
Executive, Harlow Richardson, County

3



Treasurer, George C. Leachman, Collection of 
St. Louis Contract Account,

Appellees,

Affton Board of Education, Bayless Board of 
Education, Brentwood Board of Education, 
Clayton Board of Education, Ferguson- 
Flor issant Reorganized R-2, Hancock Place 
Board of Education, Hazelwood Board of 
Education, Jennings Board of Education, 
Kirkwood Board of Education, Ladue Board of 
Education, Lindbergh Board of Education, 
MaDlewood-Richmond Heights Board of 
Education, Mehlville Board of Education, 
Normandy Board of Education, Parkway Board 
of Education, Pattonville Board of Education, 
Ritenour Board of Education, Riverview 
Gardens Board of Education, Rockwood Board of 
Education, Valley Park Board of Education, 
University City Board of Education, Webster 
Groves Board of Education and Wellston Board 
of Education,

Appellees,

State of Missouri; Arthur Mallory, Commis­
sioner of Education of the State of 
Missouri, in his official capacity; The 
State of Missouri Board of Education; 
Christopher S. Bond, Governor of the State of 
Missouri; John Ashcroft, Attorney General of 
the State of Missouri; Melvin E. Carnahan, 
Treasurer of the State of Missouri; Stephen 
C. Bradford, Commissioner of Administration 
of the State of Missouri; The State of 
Missouri Board of Education and its members. 
Erwin A. Williamson (President) , Jimmy 
Robertson (Vice President), Grover A. Gamm, 
Delmar A. Cobble, Dale M. Thompson, Donald 
W. Shelton and Robert Welling,

Appellees,

St. Louis Teachers Union, Local 420,
American Federation of Teachers, Appellant.

★
★

★
★
*
*
★
★
*
*
★
★
★
*
*

★
*
★
★
★
★

★
★
★
★
★
★
* 
i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

i t  

★  
*

Appeal from the Uni 
States District Cou 
for the Eastern 
District of Missour

4



No. 83-2118

Craton Liddell, a minor, by Minnie Liddell, 
his mother and next friend, and Minnie 
Liddell; Joanna Goldsby, a minor, by Barbara 
Goldsby, her mother and next friend, and 
Barbara Goldsby; Deborah Yarber, a minor, by 
Samuel Yarber, her father and next friend, 
and Samuel Yarber; Natalie Moore, a minor, by 
Louise Moore, her mother and next friend, 
and Louise Moore; Rochelle LeGrand, a minor, 
by Lois LeGrand, her mother and next friend, 
and Lois LeGrand; on behalf of themselves 
and all other school age children and their 
parents residing in the metropolitan school 
district of the City of St. Louis, Missouri,

Appellees,
Earline Caldwell, Liddie Caldwell, Denise 
Daniels, Dwayne Daniels, Gwendolyn Daniels, 
Cedric Williams, Stephanie Williams, Gloria 
Williams, Janis Hutcherson, Robert Smith, 
Eddie S. Willis, and the National Associ- 
iation for the Advancement of Colored People,

Appellees,

City of St. Louis, Appellant.
United States of America,

Appellee,
Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, 
State of Missouri, Daniel L. Schlafly, 
Frederick E. Bussee, Gordon L. Benson,
Malcolm W. Martin, Mrs. Anita L. Bond,
Mrs. Joyce Bowen, Henry M. Grich, Jr. 
(Secretary), Rev. James L. Cummings 
(President), Mrs. Erma J. Lawrence,
Rev. Donald E. Mayer (Vice President), 
Lawrence Moser, Charles Harris (Members of 
the School Board) and Julius C. Dix,
Benjamin M. Price, Robert W. Bernthal,
David J. Mahan, Charles Brasfield (School



District Superintendents); and Robert E.
Wentz (Superintendent of Schools), all in 
their official capacities,

Appellees ,

St. Louis County, Gene McNary, County 
Executive, Harlow Richardson, County 
Treasurer, George C. Leachnan, Collection of 
St. Louis County Contract Account,

Appellees,

Affton Board of Education, Bayless Board of 
Education, Brentwood Board of Education, 
Clayton Board of Education, Ferguson- 
Florissant Reorganized R-2, Hancock Place 
Board of Education, Hazelwood Board of 
Education, Jennings Board of Education, 
Kirkwood Board of Education, Ladue Board 
of Education, Lindbergh Board of Education, 
Maplewood-Ri chmond Heights Board of 
Education, Mehlville Board of Education, 
Normandy Board of Education, Parkway Board 
of Education, Pattonville Board of 
Education, Ritenour Board of Education, 
Riverview Gardens Board of Education, 
Rockwood Board of Education, Valley Park 
Board of Education, University City Board 
of Education, Webster Groves Board of 
Education and Weliston Board of Education,

Appellees

State of Missouri; Arthur Mallory,
Commissioner of Education of the State of 
Missouri, in his official capacity; The 
State of Missouri Board of Education; 
Christopher S. Bond, Governor of the State 
of Missouri; John Ashcroft, Attorney 
General of the State of Missouri; Melvin E. 
Carnahan, Treasurer of the State of 
Missouri; Stephen C. Bradford, Commissioner 
of Administration of the State of Missouri; 
The State of Missouri Board of Education 
and its members: Erwin A. Williamson 
(President), Jimmy Robertson (Vice 
President), Grover A. Gamm, Delmar A. 
Cobble, Dale M. Thompson, Donald W. Shelton 
and Robert Welling,

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
it
i t

it

it

*
*
♦
★
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Appeal from the United 

States District Court 
for the Eastern 
District of Missouri.

*
*

*
*
*

*

*

*

*
*

*
*

Appellees,



St. Louis Teachers Union, Local 420,
American Federation of Teachers,

Appellant

No. 83-2140

In Re : City of St. Louis, Paul 
and Ronald A. Leggett,

Berra

Peti tioners

Nc . 83-2220

Petition for Writ o 
Prohibition.

Cr a ton Liddell, a minor, by Minnie Liddell, * 
his mother and next friend, and Minnie 
Liddell; Joanna Goldsby, a minor, by Barbara * 
Goldsby, her mother and next friend, and 
Barbara Goldsby; Deborah Yarber, a minor, 
by Samuel Yarber, her father and next friend, 
and Samuel Yarber; Natalie Moore, a minor, 
by Louise Moore, her mother and next friend, 
and Louise Moore; Rochelle LeGrand, a minor, 
by Lois LeGrand, her mother and next friend, 
and Lois LeGrand; on behalf of themselves *
and all other school age children and their 
parents residing in the metropolitan school 
district of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, ^

Appellees, * *
Earline Caldwell, Liddie Caldwell, Denise *
Daniels, Dwayne Daniels, Gwendolyn Daniels,
Cedric Williams, Stephanie Williams, Gloria 
Williams, Janie Hutcherson, Robert Smith,
Eddie S. Willis, and the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People,Appellees, * *

*City of St. Louis, #
United States of America, *
Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, * 
State of Missouri, Daniel L. Schlafly,

7



*
*
*
*
*
*
i t

i t

i t

it

i t

i t

. • «, v Bussee, Gordon L. Benson,Frederick E. Bussee, ~  Anita L . Bond,
MrsC°Jovce Bowen?'Henry M. Grich, Jr.
(Secretary), Rev.
(PteS;denU 'E ^ M ; ye r V i c e  Presided) , 
LawUnc^Moser , Charles Harris (Members of 

C Knni BnarJ|- and Julius C. Dix,
Benjamin M ?ri c e , Rober t ̂«• f® * ^ tlJ|chool 

their official capacities,
Appellees,

St. Loui, county Sene ?=Nary,, ̂ ounty
George C. Leachman. Collection of

I t  Louie County Contract Account,
Appe1lees,

Bod-a of Education, Baylees Board of 
Edu~a"iont Brentwood Board of Education, 
Ili'JtoJ:°Si.rd Of Education,

Educat'ionl^Mehlv^ll^Board^of ̂ Education
o?1 Educat^on)^Fattonv<ille B ^ r d  of Education, 
Ritenour Board of Education, * ^ « " % osra 
Gardens Board of Education, B Education,o£ E d u c a t i o n ,  Valley Park Board Mebster

o? Education and Wellston Board
of Education ,

*
i t

i t

i t

*
*
*
*
*
*
it

★
*
★
it

' ★
♦
*
*
★
*
*
it

r
i t

★
*

t
i t  

i t  

i t

V .

sioner°ofMEducat ion^of htheMState^ofC° ^ iS~
S t ^ e ^ f V i S s S i r i ^ o a l d ^ f ^ d u c a t l o n ; ^ ^ ^
o?tmI?ouri!SiohnnAshc?of^Attorney General

Appeal from, the Unite" 
States District Court 
for the Eastern 
District of Missouri.

8



Stephen C. Bradford, Commissioner of Admini­
stration of the State of Missouri; The State 
of Missouri Board of Education and its 
Members Erwin A. Williamson (President),
Jimmy Robertson (Vice President), Grover A. 
Gamm, Delmar A. Cobble, Dale M. Thompson, 
Donald W. Shelton and Robert Welling,
St. Louis Teachers Union, Local 420,
American Federation of Teachers,
North St. Louis Parents and Citizens for 
Quality Education, an unincorporated 
association, including William Upchurch, 
Vivian Ali, and Dorothy Robins, parents of 
children attending the St. Louis city public 
schools and members of the regional plaintiff 
classes who objected to the settlement 
ag reement,

Appe Hants.

No. 83-2554

Craton Liddell, a minor, by Minnie Liddell, 
his mother and next friend, and Minnie 
Liddell; Joanna Goldsby, a minor, by Barbara 
Goldsby, her mother and next friend, and 
Barbara Goldsby; Deborah Yarber, a minor, by 
Samuel Yarber, her father and next friend, 
and Samuel Yarber; Natalie Moore, a minor, 
by Lou i se Moore, her mother and next friend/ 
and Louise Moore; Rochelle LeGrand, a minor, 
by Lois LeGrand, her mother and next friend, 
and Lois LeGrand; on behalf of themselves 
and all other school age children and their 
parents residing in the metropolitan school 
district of the City of St. Louis, Missouri,

Appellees
Earline Caldwell, Liddie Caldwell, Denise 
Daniels, Dwayne Daniels, Gwendolyn Daniels, 
Cedric Williams, Stephanie Williams, Gloria 
Williams, Janis Hutcherson, Robert Smith, 
Eddie S. Willis, and the National Associ­
ation for the Advancement of Colored People,

Appellees



City of St. Louis,
United States of America,
Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, 
State of Missouri, Daniel L. Schlafly, 
Frederick E. Bussee, Gordon L. Benson, 
Malcolm W. Martin, Mrs. Anita L. Bond,
Mrs. Joyce Bowen, Henry M. Grich, Jr. 
(Secretary), Rev. James L. Cummings 
(President), Mrs. Erma J. Lawrence,
Rev. Donald E. Mayer (Vice President), 
Lawrence Moser, Charles Harris (Members of 
the School Board); and Julius C. Dix, 
Beniamin M. Price, Robert W.Bernthai,
David J. Mahan, Charles Brasfield (School 
District Superintendents); and Robert E. 
Wentz (Superintendent of Schools), all in 
their official capacities,

Appellees

*
*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
★
*
*
★
*
*

St. Lo'jis County, Gene McNary, County ^
Executive, Harlow Richardson, County  ̂
Treasurer, George C. Leachman, Collection of  ̂
St. Louis County Contract Account,

Appellees,

Affton Board of Education, Bayless Board of 
Education, Brentwood Board of Education, 
Clayton Board of Education, Ferguson- 
Florissant Reorganized R-2, Hancock Place 
Board of Education, Hazelwood Board of 
Education, Jennings Board of Education, 
Kirkwood Board of Education, Ladue Board of 
Education, Lindbergh Board of Education, 
Maolewood-Richmond Heights Board of 
Education, Mehlville Board of Education, 
Normandy Board of Education, Parkway Board 
of Education, Pattonville Board of Education, 
Ritenour Board of Education, Riverview 
Gardens Board of Education, Rockwood Board 
of Education, Valley Park Board of Education, 
University City Board of Education, Webster 
Groves Board of Education and Wellston Board 
of Education,

Appellees,

*
*

★
*
*
★
*
♦
*
*
*

♦
*
*
*
♦
*
*
*
*
*
*

10



State of Missouri; Arthur Mallory, Commis­
sioner of Education of the State of Missouri, * 
in his official capacity; The State of 
Missouri Board of Education; Christopher S. 
Bond, Governor of the State of Missouri;
John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the State * 
of Missouri; Melvin E. Carnahan, Treasurer 
of the State of Missouri; Stephen C.
Bradford, Commissioner of Administration of 
the State of Missouri; The State of Missouri * 
Board of Education and its members: Erwin A. * 
Williamson (President), Jimmy Robertson 
(Vice President), Grover A. Gamm, Delmar A. 
Cobble, Dale M. Thompson, Donald W. Shelton 
and Robert Welling, Appellants. *

Appeal from the United 
States District Court 
for the Eastern 
District of Missouri.

Submi tted: 
Filed:

November 28, 1983 
February 8, 1984

Opinion of the Court En banc, LAY, Chief Judge, HEANEY, BRIGHT' 
ROSS, McMILLIAN, ARNOLD, and FAGG, Circuit Judges, with JOHN R. 
GIBSON, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part, 
and BOWMAN, Circuit Judge, dissenting.

The Caldwell and Liddell plaintiffs, representing black stu­
dents and parents of the St. Louis City School District, the City 
School District, and several suburban school districts have 
entered into a unique and comprehensive settlement agreement 
designed to further desegregation in the city schools. The 
United States District Court has approved the agreement and has 
entered orders to fund the plan.

With the exceptions and limitations noted in the opinion, we 
approve the agreement and the order entered by the district court
with respect to:

The voluntary transfers of students between the city and 
suburban schools and the establishment of additional magnet

11



. „  t-hp Citv School Districtschools and integrative programs in the y
as necessary to the successful desegregation of *
schools;

The quality education programs for the nonintegrated schools 
in the City School District;

The quality education programs for all schools in the City 
School District, but only insofar as these programs ave ^  
shown to be necessary for the city to retain its Class 
rating or to be essential to the successful desegregation o 
the city schools as hereinafter set forth;

T,e provisions of the district court's order requiring the 
State of Missouri, as the primary constitutional violator, 
pay the full cost of city to suburb and suburb to.clty 
fers. maanet schools and integrative programs in the y
schools, and one-half of the cost of the quality educate 
programs in the city schools. We decline to approve t 
district court order insofar as it requires the State to fund 
student transfers between suburban school dlSt“ CtS 
fund magnet schools or integrative programs in those
districts;

improved facilities for the city schools. We require further 
planning, however, before construction begins. *' J
with particularity the projects that will be un er a , 
to take account of a probable decline in the city school 
population in the next few years.

. . Hi strict court roust take beforeWe outline the steps that the district co
it can require an increase in real estate taxes to fund the City
Board's share of the quality education component of the pBoard S a n a i c  ^ >. os that the court must
without a vote of the people, and t P .. ., . . 0 _ Ww, issued to fund the citytake before it can require that bonds b
Board's share of capital improvements without a similar vote.

12



make it clear, however, that no party found to have violated the 
Constitution will be permitted to escape its obligation to 
provide equal educational opportunity to the black children of
S t . Lou i s.

We make it clear that the suburban schools meeting the goals 
set forth in the plan will receive a final judgment declaring 
that they have satisfied their desegregation obligations.

Finally, we recognize that the settlement agreement and the 
district court's order will have to be modified to conform to 
this opinion, and we are aware that the cost of the plan, partic­
ularly to the State, will be significantly reduced. In our view, 
however, the changes do not alter the essential character of the 
plan, and they preserve its constitutionality. The parties to 
the settlement agreement are required to decide promptly whether 
they will accept the changes set forth in this opinion. If they 
refuse to dc so, the interdistrict trial will proceed. I.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY.

In February, 1972, a group of black parents (the Liddell 
plaintiffs) filed a class action against the City Board, the 
board members, and school administrators, alleging racial segre­
gation in the city's schools in violation of the fourteenth 
amendment. The defendants' motion to join the State of Missouri 
and St. Louis County (containing the suburban school districts) 
as codefendants was denied on December 1, 1973. A year la^er,
the parties entered into a consent agreement which provided for 
an increase in the number of minority teachers and included a 
pledge by the City Board to attempt to "relieve the residence- 
based racial imbalance in the City schools." Liddell— v_.— Bd_j— of
Educ., 469 F. Supp. 1304, 1310 (E.D. Mo. 1979).

13



The case first came before this Court in 1976,1 when the 
Caldwell plaintiffs appealed the district court's denial of their 
right to intervene. We granted intervention, but declined to 
pass on the constitutionality of the consent decree. Liddell 
Caldwell, 546 F.2d 766 (8th Cir.) (Liddell I), cert, denied, 433
U.S. 914 (1976,. We encouraged the United States and State of
Missouri to intervene, recommended the creation of a biracial 
citizens committee to assist in formulating a desegregation plan, 
and suggested voluntary interdistrict student transfers as one
remedial too1. Id. at 7 7 4.

Desegregation plans were developed and submitted to the 
district court by the City Board, the Liddell plaintiffs, the 
Caldwell plaintiffs, and the United States as amicus curiae. 
Before approving any plan, the district court ordered a trial to 
determine whether there had been a constitutional violation and 
to frame a remedy if a violation was found. The United States, 
the City of St. Louis, and two white citizens' groups were 
allowed to intervene as plaintiffs. The State of Missouri, the 
State Board of Education, and the Commissioner of Education were 
added as defendants. The district court found no constitutional 
violation, and held that the City Board had achieved a unitary 
school system, in 1954-56 through its "neighborhood school 
policy." Liddell v. Bd. of Educ., supra, 469 F. Supp. at 1360-
1361.

We reversed the district court in Adams v_.— United State_s, 
620 F .2d 1277 (8th Cir.) (en banc),cert, denied, 449 U.S. 826

H?e recounted the procedural history of !̂?is ^ fixation in
?7loV !d ctV m

InitedS'tifes, 620 P.2d Till. 1281-1283 {6th Cir.), cert, denied. 
449 U.S. 826 (1980).

14



✓

(1980),2 holding that the City Board and the State were jointly 
responsible for maintaining a segregated school system. In 
reaching this decision, we noted that the Missouri State Consti­
tution had mandated separate schools for "white and colored 
children" through 1976, that the State had not taken prompt and 
effective steps to desegregate the city schools after Brown _v^ 
Bd. of Educ. , 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (Brown J.) , and that the City
Board’s policies and practices since 1956 had contributed to the 
existing segregation. We remanded to the district court and 
directed that the schools be promptly desegregated. We suggested 
the following techniques:

(1) Developing and implementing compensatory 
and remedial educational programs. * *

(2) Developing and implementing programs  ̂
providing less than full-time integrated learning 
exper iences.

(3) Developing and implementing a comprehen­
sive program of exchanging and transferring 
students with the suburban school districts of St.
Louis County. * * *

(4) Maintaining existing magnet and specialty 
schools, and establishing such additional_schools 
as needed to expand opportunities for an inte­
grated education.

(5) Establishing an Educational Park.
(6) Continuing and expanding a policy of 

permissive transfers in the district.

Adams v. United States, supra, 620 F .2d at 1296-1297 (citations
om i tted) .

2We also ruled 
between L i d d e 11 I 
557 (8th~C lT. 1977

on several procedural questions in the 
and Adams, see Liddell v.— CaldweU.,
(Ltaaell II) .

inter im 
553 F.2d

-  15 -

\



After holding extensive evidentiary hearings. the ^strict 
court approved a system-wide desegregation P1"  “  th* city
schools beginning with the 1980-81 school year. liais e  • --a. 
i : T d u c . 4,1 F. supp. 351 («.»• "O. m o , .  This Plan included^
comprehensive program of exchanging and transfers 
between the city and suburban schools, the establishme 
magnet schools and integrative programs, and , guality educ, ion 
component. In approving the plan, the district court conclu .

-  %‘s!aa tothU s s- - instrumentalities must bean£ to other state
rejected!.]

Id. at 3^9.

we affrrmed the drsttict court's plan on appeal Liddell v ^  
of Educ. 687 F . 2d 643 (8th Cir. 1981, ( L r d d e l l ^ ,  . ^
denied, ~454 O.S. 1081, 1091 (1982,. In so dorng, we deeded tha.
T T T T s constitutionally permissible to allow a number of all-

. t /-it-v We noted that no all-white black schools to remain in the city. _ .a , Dian of voluntary mterd istr ictcrhool s would remain, that a P-*-
transfers would be initiated, that magnet schools and int^ rat1^  
Programs would be established, and that a substantial P - t  of the 
desegregation budget would be spent to improve the 
education in the all-black schools. «e affirmed the S ate s 
liability for desegregation costs and remanded for continued
implementation of the plan.

Questions about this plan's implementation came beforeus in 
early 1982, when the State again protested its liability
certain desegregation costs. Liadgi--- --- ---------- — -
626 (8th Cir.) (Liddell V) . cerc_denied, 103 S. Ct.

16



(1982).3 We aff i rmed the district court's allocation of costs, 
placing one-half of the actual desegregation costs on the 
State. We also required the State to pay the costs of voluntary 
interdistrict transfers and the costs of merging city and county 
vocational educational programs. Meanwhile, the City Board an 
the Liddell and Caldwell plaintiffs continued to seek the 
consolidation of the city and county schools into a single 
integrated school district on the theory that the suburban 
schools had also violated the Constitution. They successfu y 
moved to add the county school districts and St. Louis County 
officials as defendants to this litigation. We noted that the 
suburban schools could not be held as constitutional violators 
Without further evidentiary hearings and findings by the district 
cou-t. we again noted that the State and City Board-already 
adjudged violators of the Constitution-could be required to fund 
measures designed to eradicate the remaining vestiges of segre­
gation in the city schools, including measures which evolved the
voluntary participation of the suburban schools. Liddell---,
supra, 677 P.2d at 641.

of
•̂ We issue 

E d uc., 6 9 3
2 a procedural order in the interim. Liddell 
F .2d 721 (8th Cir. 1981) (Liddell IV).

v . Bd.

*We suggested that
the district court could (1) require the state and 
Jhe city to take additional steps to improve the 
quality of the remaining a l l - b l a c k  schools in the 
o-.. If ct- Tonis* (2) require that additional 
^gtynet0f.choolsOUi S'estibli.?ed at
within the citv or in suburban school districts 
with the consent of the suburban districts where

iincentives for voluntary interdistrict transfe .
c-n v ">A at 641-642 (footnote omitted) Liddell V , supra, 677 F.2d at

17



dl5.rict court entered an order on August 6. 1982, which The drs.rrct co lt »ould impose in the
d isclosed the mandatory ,nterdrstrret plan it

.v- s,vjrbar school districts were found liaoie ro event the s . ^  _ ^  ^ would create one uni£led
tutional violation . f tax rate. The court
metropolitan school district with a uniform tax
then scheduled interdistrict liability hearings.

w forP these hearings were held, however, the City Board,
* .. S i  tiffs, the Caldwell plaintiffs, and all twen y

the L l d d 6 .„ school districts developed a settlement agreement 
three co-nkJ sc. COUrt-aPpointed expert and filed awith the assistance of a cour ppo ^
proposed Utr ict claims against the county
M ^ 3 d'c!icts, and also enabled the State and City Board toschoc. du.s-.icts, . c^hocls through the■ stepc to desegregate the city schools yta<e iir.ro. ts... step- , , as we outlined in
voluntary partreipatien of the county schools,
L i d d e i- V •

The settlement plan has several c o g e n t  ̂  
voluntary interd i.tr iot transfers between City aHr t o r ^ y ^ r ^ ^ t ^ r ^ I o e i v e s ^ n o o g h

transfers within five years to MtlSCy judgraent.
gat ions under the plan will rece* teacher transfers
Affirmative hiring requirements an vo a substantial
• »  in **“  Pl;;oi;° "  .ttr.et Whit, student transfers
impact rn the c o u n t y ' sc remedial programs for city 
to the city, - a  * ° J duional Ba9net schools in the city
students, the plan or COBpensatory and remedial
and the C°Un'yn'ents These latter components are designed to education components. schools, and to make
improve the quality of educat.on in the city
special improvements in the all-black schoo

fiiAri the settlement agreement, the after the parties filed tne , oa« a.nAfter ^ . ADril and May of 1983 todistrict court conducted hearings i P

4

1

18



determine whether the settlement plan is fair, reasonable, and 
adequate. In its July 5, 1983, order, the court concluded the 
plan met these standards and allocated the costs of the plan 
between the State and City Board. Liddell v. Bd. of Educ., 
567 F. Supp. 1037 (E.D. Mo. 1983). The State is totally
responsible for the costs of the voluntary interdistrict
transfers, the magnet schools, and various part-time and 
alternative integrative programs. Further, the State will pay
one-half of the cost of the quality improvements in the city 
schools and one-half of the capital improvements required by the 
plan. The City Board is required to pay the remaining costs.

The district court ordered the City Board to submit a bond 
issue to its voters before February 1, 1984, to fund its share of 
the capital improvements required under the plan. In the event 
this bond issue failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds vote 
the court reserved authority to consider an appropriate order to 
fund these capital improvements.  ̂ The district court also 
deferred a scheduled reduction in the City Board's operating levy 
otherwise required by Mo. Rev. Stat. § 164.013 (Proposition C) 
insofar as this revenue is necessary to fund the City Board's 
share of desegregation costs. It further reserved authority to 
order an increase in the City Board's property tax rate, follow­
ing notice and a hearing on the amount, if the revenue necessary 
to fund the City Board's constitutional obligation to desegregate 
the city schools is not otherwise available.

Several weeks after the district court entered its order 
approving the settlement, the State filed a motion to stay the 
implementation of the plan. The City of St. Louis filed a peti­
tion for a writ of prohibition seeking the same result. The 
district court denied both of these motions, and the State and * S

^The two-thirds majority is required by Mo. Const, art
S 26(b). This bond issue election was held on November 8,  
and it failed, receiving fifty-five percent voter approval.

. VI 
1983 r

t

19



Citv cf St. Lou i e appealed to our Court. In an en banc order, 
Liddell v. Missouri, 717 F.2d 1180 (8th Cir. 1983) (Liddell V l ± ,  

we denied the stay with certain exceptions. We froze the number
interdistrict transfers and deferred any further district

We
o: mtercistricr.
court action concerning the City Board's property tax rate
a 1 sc defer re: action on the writ of prohibition unti. we

considered t h - case on its merits

St 
c -

Anneals were filed from the district court's July 5, 1983,
I: ?tate of Missouri, the City of St. Louis, the North

■_ ., 5 Parents and Citizens for Quality Education, and the
■ - - r- !!*■ ' ̂  - .

► oPjdc

ac

c
a p rrov 
r c u i r i n

r the i r
the c- a 
State t 
order in: 
city sc 
increase 
cost of

on appeal that the district court 
additional interdistrict transfers of 
e State to pay the full cost of the 

,3rcfp,e; 1 2 in approving additional magnet schools 
e integrative programs, and requiring the State to 
il cost; (3' in approving certain programs to improve 

1 1  y of education in the city schools, and requiring the 
: pay one-half the cost of these programs; and (4) in
a deferral of scheduled property tax reduction for the 

hoc 1s , and in stating that it would order a further 
n property taxes to fund the City Board's share of the 
e quality education programs in the city schools.

The City of St. Louis ;joins in questioning the authority o^ 
the district court to enter the taxing order referred to in (4) 
above.

The St. Louis Teachers Union contends that the district 
court erred in denying its motion to intervene.

The Northside Parents Organization contends that the 
district court erred in failing to provide more extensive relief

20



to the black students who wou 
schools.

Id remain in the nonintegrated

The United States did not file a notice of appeal or cross­
appeal. It did file a brief and it was permitted to argue its 
position before the Court en banc. It appears to argue that many 
of the programs authorized by the district court may be necessary 
to desegregate the city schools, but questions whether the 
district court's factual findings are sufficient to support all 
aspects of the district court's remedial order. It asks this 
Court to remand to the district court to correct the alleged
deficiencies .

II. INTERDISTRICT TRANSFERS.

On July 2, 1981, the district court entered an order autho­
rizing voluntary interdistrict transfers and requiring the State 
to pay the cost of the transfers. The program was initiated at 
the beginning of the 1981-82 school year, and by the end of the 
1982-83 school year, it had grown so that 873 city students were 
attending county schools and 318 county students were attending 
city schools. All but seven of the 318 were enrolled in city

6We question whether the United States should be heard as a 
D a r t v  Parties who do not appeal from a trial court judgment 
cannot be heard to attack that judgment, either to enlarge their 
own rights, or to lessen the rights of their adversary. See
Morley Construction Co. v. Maryland Casualty—   rrsTon--! oi pf 9 37) : United States v. American Railway Express—
265 D-S-I425 ' HfTWWegtMi*
5n?“ d' gfff o  AW ins. _Co/. 586 r.*a n 7 (8th Cir
1978): Tiedeman v. Chicaqo, Milwaukee, St. Paul t Pac. R. *
513 P .2d 1267, 1271-1273 (8th Cir. 1975).

Here, the United States is requesting that the district 
court’s order be vacated and that the case be remanded forfurther findings. This r e s u l t  wuld "lessen the rights of toe
parties to the settlement agreement. In practical ter , 
however, we have considered the United States s position 
amicus curiae.

21



magnet schools. The State of Missouri paid the cost of these 
transfers, including transportation costs and fiscal incentives, 
to the sending and receiving schools.

The settlement agreement calls for an expanded program of 
interdistrict transfers. City-to-county transfers of black 
students will be permitted to grow incrementally until they reach 
15,000. No limit is placed on the county-to-city transfers, but 
the number is not expected to exceed 3,000. These transfers are 
expected to be primarily to city magnet schools and programs. 
Transfers between county districts are also permitted. _ All 
student transfers are voluntary.

The State's funding obligations remain as they were under 
the July 2, 1981, order: It must pay transportation costs and 
must pay to the receiving district for each transferring student 
an amount equal to the receiving district's cost per pupil, less 
State aid and trust fund allocation. It is further required to 
provide fiscal incentives to sending districts which may elect 
payment under one of two formulas: either one-half of the State 
aid the district would have received had the student not trans­
ferred; or, beginning in 1984-85, if a district sends more 
students than it receives, State aid based on the district's 
enrollment for the second prior year. To be eligible for 
transfer, students of good standing must be in the racial 
majority in their home districts and must transfer to districts 
where they would be in the racial minority.

After approval of the settlement agreement, transfers rose 
dramatically. During the current school year, 2,294 city 
students have transferred to suburban districts and three hundred 
and eighty-nine suburban students have transferred to city 
schools. Thirty-four suburban students have transferred to other 
suburban districts. One thousand nine-hundred and sixty-five 
additional city-to-county transfer applications are on file.

22



The settlement agreement provides that participating 
districts will receive a final judgment releasing them from 
further liability if they achieve the plan ratio7 within five 
years. Litigation is stayed during this period. If the school 
district does not reach the plan ratio, litigation can be renewed 
after first pursuing various negotiating procedures. If the 
liability of any individual school district is litigated, the 
plaintiffs must prove liability and may not seek reorganization 
or consolidation of school districts, nor may they seek a 
minority enrollment exceeding twenty-five percent of the school 
distr ict.

The State argues that the district court order approving the 
settlement agreement and requiring the State to pay the full cost 
of interdistrict transfers cannot be sustained because it imposes 
ar. interdistrict remedy based on an intradistrict violation. We 
disagree for two reasons: First, the issue has previously been
decided adversely to the State; second, the interdistrict 
transfers are intrinsic to an effective remedy for the intra­
district violation and are justified by precedent.

^ THF. PROPRIETY OF THE DISTRICT COURT1S ORDER WITH
RESPECT TO INTERDISTRICT TRANSFERS HAS BEEN 
PREVIOUSLY DECIDED.

This Court has repeatedly authorized the interdistrict 
transfer of students as a fundamental element of an effective

7Under the Plan Ratio, * * * a suburban school 
district would accept up to as many black transte 
students as would constitute 15 percent of the 
total student population in that district, bu no 
suburban school district would be required to 
accept more black transfer students than would 
raise the overall percentage of blacks in the 
total student population higher than 25 percent.

Settlement Agreement, 1-2.
23



remedy for the unconstitutional segregation of the city 
schools. In Adams v. United States, supra, 620 F.2d at 1296, we 
specifically approved the development and implementation of a 
comprehensive program of exchanging and transferring students 
with the suburban school districts of St. Louis County."

In Liddell III, supra, 667 F . 2d at 650 , we rejected the 
State's argument that the district court was without authority to 
formulate an interdistrict plan without finding an interdistrict 
violation. We also noted that voluntary interdistrict pupil 
exchanges "must be viewed as a valid part of the attempt to 
fashion a workable remedy within the City." _Id_. at 651. In an 
order appended to that opinion, we noted that the State had been 
"judicially determined to be a primary constitutional violator," 
and we held that an interdistrict transfer plan would be salutary 
and would be entirely enforceable against the State. .Id. at 659.

Finally, in Liddell V , supra, 677 F.2d at 630, we reiterated 
our conclusion that, because the State had been found a primary 
constitutional wrongdoer, it can "be required to take those 
actions which will further the desegregation of the city schools 
even if the actions required will occur outside the boundaries of 
the city school district." After discussing broad-based inter­
district proposals and dismissing them as unsuitable, we 
addressed the proper limits of the district court's equitable 
remedial authority:

[T]he district court can require the existing 
defendants — the state and city school board—  to 
take the actions which will help eradicate the 
remaining vestiges of the government-imposed 
school segregation in the city schools, including 
actions which may involve the voluntary partici­
pation of the suburban schools. For example, the 
district court could * * * (4) require the state
to provide additional incentives for voluntary 
interdistrict transfer.

24



Id. at 641-642 (footnote omitted).

We did not act hastily or arbitrarily in approving voluntary 
interdistrict transfers. We outlined the reasons for our deci­
sion in Adams v. Dnlted States, supra. 620 F.2d at 1 2 9 1 - 1 2 9 7 .  We 
reviewed the parties' proposed remedial alternatives, aeveral of 
which involved extensive cross-busing between city schools. The 
Caldwell plaintiffs proposed a seventy-five percent black/twenty- 
five percent white racial mix within the district. The Liddell 
plaintiffs, through their expert witness, Dr. David Colton, 
proposed a four-tier division of the schools by age groups, which 
would integrate schools above fourth grade to achieve a sixty 
percent/forty percent or fifty-five percent/forty-five percent 
ratio of black to white students. All whites above third grade 
would attend integrated schools and all blacks would receive at 
least one-third of their education above third grade in 
integrated schools. The Department of Justice, through its 
expert witness, Dr. Gary Orfield, proposed maintenance and 
expansion of integration in all grades, voluntary interdistrict 
and intradistrict transfers, magnet schools, integration of 
personnel, and community involvement. The Board of Education 
proposed the creation of integrated junior high schools which 
would funnel students to high schools in a balanced fashion. 
Magnet schools would supplement these junior high schools, 
white parents proposed that the schools be left as they were or, 
alternatively, that the city and county schools be merged and a 
comprehensive plan for interdistrict student transfers be
developed.

Of the four plans submitted by the parties, we found that 
only the Colton and Orfield plans were constitutionally permis­
sible. We rejected the City Board's plan as too little too later 
elementary schools would remain entirely segregated and 
desegregation of the upper tiers would be delayed four to seven 
years. We rejected the Caldwell plan because the record 
supported the district court's finding that implementation of the

-  25 -

i



plar. would probably result in an all-black school system within a 
few years. We found that the Colton plan was permissible with 
some substantial changes, but that plan was discarded by the 
district court after it found that the plan was "educationally 
unsound" and that it would "fail to achieve effective desegre­
gation." ■ Liddell v. Bd. of Educ., supra, 491 F. Supp. at 356.

The approach suggested by the United State's expert, Dr. 
Orfield, was ultimately adopted by the district court as the plan 
that held "the promise of providing 'the greatest possible degree 
of actual desegregation, taking into account the practicalities 
of the situation.'" _I_d. at 359 , citing Davis v. Bd. of School 
Comm1 r s , 402 U.S. 33 , 37 (1971). We reaffirmed our support of 
the Orfield plan in Liddell III, supra, 667 F.2d at 649-653. We 
noted that it was the only constitutionally permissible plan 
submitted that could achieve stable, effective integration while 
minimizing transportation of students and maintaining integrated 
schools in integrated neighborhoods. _Id. at 650 .

The State defendants have raised the question of remedial 
scope twice before the Supreme Court. On June 17, 1981, the 
State filed a petition for certiorari from our panel opinion in 
Liddell III. In that petition, the State argued that there was
no basis for State liability:

The evidence in this case indicates that the State 
of Missouri took the necessary and appropriate 
steps to remove the legal underpinnings of segre­
gated schooling as well as affirmatively 
prohibiting such discrimination.

State’s Petition for Certiorari, Ho. 80-2152, June 17, 1981, at 
17.

It further argued:

26



The District Court exceeded its authority in 
ordering the preparation of a plan of voluntary 
pupil exchanges between the St. Louis School 
District and nonparty school districts because (1) 
an interdistrict violation has neither been 
pleaded nor proven, and (2) the District Court 
cannot, consistent with Milliken v. B radley, order 
the State of Missouri to fund such a voluntary 
plan simply on the basis of an intradistrict
violation.

Id. at 20.

The Supreme Court denied certiorari. Missouri— v_.— Lidde_U  ,
4 54 U.S. 1091 (1981) .

Not satisfied with this answer, the State raised the same 
arguments again before our Court in Liddell IV. and Liddell _V. 
Unsuccessful in our Court, the State filed a second petition for 
certiorari with the Supreme Court on April 30, 1982. The State
again argued that

ordering an inter-district remedy [the .12(a) 
voluntary transfers, funded by the State] without 
first finding an inter-district violation and 
inter-district effect is in conflict with this 
court's decision in Milliken v. Bradley— I. [an 
Hills v. Gautreaux].

State's Petition for Certiorari, No. 81-2022, April 30, 1982, a. 
7; see also id. at 10.

Again, the Supreme Court denied certiorari. Missouri._v. Liddell 
103 S. Ct. 172 (1982). Both of the State's petitions for certio 
rari came after the Supreme Court's decision in Hills_ v
Gautreaux, 425 U.S. 284 (1976).®

®A1though denial of certiorari does not necessarily imply
tB§rtIaled°)f the decisi°n b6lOW °n the KieritS'' h U

27



As a result of our previous holdings and of the Supreme 
Court's inaction, the use of interdistrict transfers is settled 
as law of the case. While this doctrine does not foreclose is 
Court from correcting its errors, it prevents repeated litigation 
of the same issue and promotes uniformity of decision IiL_JL 

Sidino and Alum inum. Coil Antitrust Litigation.
613 616 (8th Cir. 1982), vacated en banc, 705 F.2d 980 (8th Cir.
1963), cert, denied, 104 S. Ct. 204 (1983). We will reconsider a
previously decided" issue only on a showing of clear error an 
manifest injustice. United States v  (In ^ ,  700 F.2d 445, 45
n 10 (8th Cir.), cert, denied, 104 S. Ct. 339 (1983)! W r t p -

v. S*nnders Archery Co,. 578 F .2d 727. 730-731 (8th
Cir. 1976).

K. are loath to retract our previous declarations on settled 
issuer when a case returns on appeal) to do so ignores important 
considerations of judicial economy and ignores our interest in 
protecting the settled expectations of parties who have conformed 
the ir" conduct to our guidelines. In this case, our conclusion 
that State-funded interdistrict transfers are an appropriate 
remedy is strengthened by our previous invocation of the law o 
the case doctrine. Liddell V. s u e t s , 677 F.2d at 629-630.

The State argues that we should not be bound by our earlier- 
decisions because the magnitude of the proposed plan with
respect both to cost and numbers of students, distinguishes it 
from existing plans. Neither this Court nor the district court 
placed any limitation on the number of students that could
transfer under the plan in existence during the last two sch 
years, nor were we requested to do so. Moreover, it w.. clear 
that the number of transfers would have to be large if

recognized that denial of certiorari- ^Ls,^ yndewen s y,
circumstances, a _,£"c£ “h ‘f?68 Ca3£74-1275 (8th Cir. 1977). See Meyer's Bahery., 561 F.2d 1268 , 1274^12 ̂  443 (1973). united
also United States v K.as, 4 9  U.S. cir.,, cert, denied,
States v. Thompson, 685 F.za v
T o 3 S. Ct. 494 (1982).

28



opportunity for an integrated education was to be provided to a 
significant number of the 30,000 black students that remained in 
the all-black schools in the city.

Notwithstanding our view that the issues regarding inter­
district -transfers have been heretofore decided, we again reach 
the merits of the matter and, alternatively, hold that the plan 
and the funding order, as they relate to interdistrict transfers, 
meet constitutional standards.

B. THE DISTRICT COURT’S ORDER WITH RESPECT TO
INTERDISTRICT TRANSFERS MEETS CONSTITUTIONAL 
STANDARDS.

Since Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 349 U.S. 294, 300 (1955) (Brown 
II', principles of equity have guided courts in devising remedies 
to eradicate segregation and its effects. Yet for equitable 
remedies to pass constitutional muster, they must conform to 
three overlapping criteria.

[First] , the nature of the desegregation remedy is 
to be determined by the nature and scope of the 
constitutional violation. * * * The remedy must
therefore be related to "the condition alleged to 
offend the Constitution." * * * Second, the decree 
must indeed be remed i al in nature, that is, it 
must be designed as nearly as possible "to restore 
the victims of discriminatory conduct to the posi­
tion they would have occupied in the absence of 
such conduct." * * * Third, the federal courts 
* * * must take into account the interests of 
state and local authorities in managing their own 
affairs, consistent with the Constitution.

Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267, 280-281 (1977) (Milliken II)
(citations and footnotes omitted).

Examination of voluntary interdistrict transfers confirms that, 
as a remedy for an intradistrict violation, such transfers comply

29



wit.n constitutions! stsndsrds*

1.  The remedy was c l o s e l y  tailo red  to the nature 

and scope of the violation.

The Missouri Constitution requires the State to provide a 
free public education. Mo. Const, art. 9,  § 1 ( a ) -  The State 
supervises instruction, distributes funds for public education to 
local school districts, approves school bus routes, provides free 
textbooks, and passes on applications by school districts for 
federal aid. See Mo. Rev. Stat. SS 1 6 1 . 0 9 2 ,  1 6 3 . 0 2 1 ,  1 6 3 . 0 3 1 ,  
163.161, 170.051, 170.055; and Liddell v. Bd. of Educ^, supra, 
469 F. Sapp, at 1313-1314.

Before the Civil War, Missouri prohibited the creation of 
school* to teach reading and writing to blacks. Act of
February 16, 1847, S 1, 1847 Mo. Laws 103. State-mandated segre­
gation was first imposed in the 1865 Constitution, Article IX 
§ 2. It was reincorporated in the Missouri Constitution of
1945: Article IX specifically provided that separate schools
were to be maintained for "white and colored children." In 
1952, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of 
Article IX under the United States Constitution. See State _ex 
re 1. Hobby v. Disman, 250 S.W.2d 137, 141 (Mo. 1952). Article IX 
was not repealed until 1976 . Adams v. United States., .supra, 620 
F.2d at 128C. Under the segregated system, the State bused 
suburban black students from St. Louis County into the city’s 
black schools to maintain the dual system. IdL, at 1281. The 
city schools remained largely segregated until this Court’s deci­
sion in Adams. 5

5In addition, state law provided separate libraries, public 

"institutes for colored teachers," Mo. Rev. Stat. 10632 (1939).

30



It is clear from the foregoing that the State's presence in 
public education is immense and that the State’s Constitution and 
statutes mandated discrimination against black St. Louis students 
on the broadest possible basis. It is equally clear that the 
discriminatory policies continued after the Supreme Court decided 
Brown I, supra, in 1954. Given the breadth of the State's 
violation, it was appropriate for the district court to mandate 
an equally comprehensive remedy. The potential for integration 
within the district, however, was limited by the fact that almost 
eighty percent of the students were black, and by the district 
court’s finding that if it integrated the city schools by impos­
ing an eighty/twenty ratio in each school, an all-black school 
system would probably result. With that in mind, the district 
court properly considered the alternative of voluntary transfers 
to county districts. The opportunity for effective integration 
became a reality when the county schools agreed to accept the 
voluntary transfer of several thousand black students.

2 . The remedy restores the victims of discrimi­
nation as nearly as possible to the position they 
would have ocoupied absent that discrimination.

We have heretofore enumerated the alternative remedies 
suggested by the parties, and we have explained why the district 
court selected a remedy which included voluntary interdistrict 
transfers and why this Court approved that remedy. (See supra 
pp. 25-26.)

of
10We also note that the remedial limits imposed by Dayton Bd^ 
Educ. v. B rinkman, 433 D.S. 406 (1977), are inapposite to this 

case^ The findings“”of de jure segregation which distinguish this 
case were absent in Dayton. In that case, the Supreme Court 
considered the proper scope of an equitable remedy for three 
isolated instances of discrimination.

31



We are met for the first time on this appeal with a new, or 
at least a more precisely framed, argument against interdistrict 
transfers. The State asserts that the district court cannot 
require the State to fund extensive interdistrict transfers 
unless the record supports and the district court finds that the 
black children of St. Louis would have attended schools in the 
county had it not been for the State's constitutional prohibition 
against black and white students attending schools together. 
Nothing in the cases cited by the State12 suggests or requires us 
to hold that the district court abused its discretion when it 
required the State to fund interdistrict transfers of students to 
consenting districts. Indeed Milliken II states that the remedy 
shojld correct conditions that "flow from such a violation an^

11The United States joins in this argument. In earlier 
proceedings before this Court and the United States Supreme 
Court, however, it supported the district court's remedial use o^ 
voluntary interdistrict transfers. It argued that voluntary 
interdistrict transfers properly remedied the State s violation, 
distinguishing them from the overbroad remedy in Milliken I, 
which involved "imposition of relief upon nonparty school 
districts." It asserted that the district court can order those 
who have been found liable to make efforts to persuade those 
nonparty districts to cooperate voluntarily." U. S. Brief in
Opposition to State's Petition for Certiorari, Missouri--Vjl.
Liddell, No. 80-2152, Aug. 17, 1971, at 14 (emphasis in
original) .

In a subsequent brief, the United States again distinguished 
the interdistrict transfers from the impermissible interdistrict 
remedv in Milliken I. Moreover, in endorsing interdistrict
transfers, it stated “that, under Hills, "the State parties can 
and should be required to take appropriate remedial action for 
the constitutional violations in which they participated. U. S. 
Brief in Opposition to the State's Petition for Certiorari, 
Missouri v. Liddell, No. 81-2022, April 30, 1982, at 7,8.

12Dayton Bd. o f Educ. v. Brinkman, 443 U.S. 526 (1979) (Dayton 
II); Columbus Bd. of Educ. v. Penick, 443 U.S. 449 U9J9)? Schoq^ 
PTstrTct of Omaha v. United States, 433 U.S. 667 (1977); Dayton
Bd. of Educ. v. Brinkman, 433 U.S. 406 (1977); H*11* * ^ —
Brad ley r~ro~uTST~?57~TTyn) (Milliken II) ; Pasadena Cit y. Bd^of 
Educ; v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424 (1976); Washington v. Davis, 
T26- U.S. 529 (197$) ; Keyes v. School Dist. No. T, 4l3 U.S. 189
(1973); Swann v. Char lot te-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ^, 402 U.S. 1 
(1971).

32



should return victims "to the position they would have enjoyed in 
terms of education," but for the violation. Milliken 11, su£ra, 
433 U.S. at 282 . This remedy does precisely that: It returns
the largest number of victims to integrated schools and provides 
integrative opportunities and compensatory and remedial programs 
for those who cannot participate in the transfer plan. As the 
primary constitutional violator, the State is in no position to 
complain that some of the victims may elect to transfer to
integrated schools in another school district that is willing to
accept them.

In our view, Hills v. Gautreaux provides precedent for the 
remedy mandated by the district court. In that case, the Supreme 
Court considered a remedy against the United States Department of 
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for discrimination in public 
housing in the City of Chicago. The United States Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit had reversed the district court's 
dismissal and ordered the district court on remand to enter
summary judgment against HUD for violations of the Fifth Amend­
ment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by knowingly sanctioning 
and assisting the Chicago Housing Authority's (CHA) racially 
discriminatory public housing program. Hills v. Gautreaux, 
supra, 425 U.S. at 291-292. Thereafter, the plaintiffs requested 
that the district court require HUD to provide public housing 
outside Chicago's city limits. The district court refused,
holding that the wrongs were committed solely against city
residents and within the city's boundaries.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit 
reversed and the Supreme Court affirmed. The Supreme Court
stated:

We reject the contention that, since HUD s 
constitutional and statutory violations vere 
committed in Chicago, Hilllke_n precludes an order 
against HUD that will affect its conduct in the 
greater metropolitan area. The cr 1*1C®1 
tion between HUD and the suburban school distric

33



in Milliken is that HUD has been found to have 
violated the Constitution*. That violation
provided the necessary predicate for the entry of 
a remedial order against HUD and, indeed, imposed 
a duty on the District Court to grant appropriate 
relief. * * * Our prior decisions counsel that in 
the event of a constitutional violation "all 
reasonable methods be available to formulate an 
effective remedy," North Carolina State Board of 
Education v. Swann, 402 U.S. 43 , 46 , and that 
every effort should be made by a federal court to 
employ those methods "to achieve the greatest 
possible degree of [relief], taking into account 
the practicalities of the situation." Davis v. 
School Comm* 1rs of Mobile County, 402 U.S. 33, 
37. As the Court observed in Swann v. Charlotte- 
Mecklenburg Board of Education: "Once a right and
“a violation have been shown, the scope of a 
district court's equitable powers to remedy past 
wrongs is broad, for breadth and flexibility are 
inherent in equitable remedies."

Hills v. Gautreaux, supra, 425 U.S. at 297 (emphasis added;
citations omitted).

The Supreme Court then discussed Milliken v. Bradley, 
416 U.S. 717 (1974) (Milliken I) , and the limitation it imposed 
or. the scope of the federal courts' equity powers. In Milliken
I, the respondents alleged that the Detroit school system was 
racially segregated and they sought the creation of a unified 
school district as a remedy. Without finding constitutional 
violations by the suburban districts and without finding signif­
icant segregative effects in those districts, the district court 
ordered the consolidation of the Detroit school system with 
fifty—three independent suburban school districts. After the 
Court of Appeals for #the Sixth Circuit affirmed this desegre­
gation order, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the order 
exceeded the district court's equitable powers: the courts must
tailor "the scope of the remedy" to fit "the nature and extent of 
the constitutional violation." Id. at 744.

34



In evaluating the remedy in Hills according to Milliken I 's
standards, the Supreme Court noted that nothing in Mi 11 iken_I_
•suggests a per se rule that the federal courts lack authority to 
order parties found to have violated the Constitution to 
undertake remedial efforts beyond the municipal boundaries of the 
city where the violation occurred." Hills v. Gautreaux, 8upra, 
425 U.S. at 298 (footnote omitted). In Hills, the Supreme Court 
approved the remedy • because it did not coerce uninvolved 
governmental units and because CHA and HUD had the authority to 
operate outside Chicago's city limits. Id.

Justification for requiring the State to fund transfers 
between city and county schools is stronger than the justifi­
cation for the remedy in Hills. Its role in education is much 
broader than HUD's role in housing. See supra p. 30. In 
addition, the breadth, gravity and duration of the State's viola­
tion here was much greater. The violation scarred every student 
in St. Louis for over five generations and it gained legitimacy 
through the State Constitution and through the State's preeminent 
role in education. In following the Supreme Court's guidelines 
in Hills, we echo its conclusion concerning Milllken I. If we 
barred the use of interdistrict transfers solely because the 
State's constitutional limitation took place within the city 
limits of St. Louis, we would transform

Milliken [I]'s principled limitation on the exer­
cise of federal judicial authority into an 
arbitrary and mechanical shield for those found to 
have engaged in unconstitutional conduct.

Hills v. Gautreaux, supra, 425 U.S. at 300.

3. The d i s t r i c t  c o u rt ' s  order with respect to 
i n t e r d i s t r i c t  transfers does not infringe on State  

or l o ca l  government autonomy.

35



The Supreme Court in Hills v. Gautreaux, supra, 425 U.S. at 
296, has interpreted Milliken I to mean that district courts may 
not restructure or coerce local governments or their subdivi­
sions. This remedy does not threaten the autonomy of local 
school districts; no district will be coerced or reorganized and 
all districts retain the rights and powers accorded them by state 
and federal laws. See Hills v. Gautreaux, supra , 425 U.S. at 
305-306.

We also find unpersuasive the State's argument that funding 
this remedy will compel other budget cuts, which would interfere 
with the autonomy of state and local governments. If we accepted 
this argument, violators of the Constitution could avoid their 
remedial responsibility through manipulation of their budgets, 
leaving victims without redress. Simply put, parsimony is no 
barrier to a constitutional remedy; "it is obvious that vindica­
tion of conceded constitutional rights cannot be made dependent 
upon any theory that it is less expensive to deny than to afford 
them..'’ Watson v. Memphis, 373 U.S. 526, 537 (1963)

Interdistrict transfers between the city and the county 
schools may proceed pursuant to the settlement agreement, subject 
to the following exceptions:

(1) No additional transfers will be permitted for the

 ̂̂ The district court's funding order poses no eleventh 
amendment problems. The State relies on Edelman v. Jordan, 415 
U.S. 651 , 663 (1974 ), to avoid its liability for a remedy that
requires the expenditure of state funds where that remedy is 
allegedly overbroad. The Supreme Court in Milliken II applied 
the prospective compliance exception developed in Ex Parte Young, 
209 U.S. 123 (1908), which "permits federal courts to enjoin
state officials to conform their conduct to requirements of 
federal law, notwithstanding a direct and substantial impact on 
the state treasury." Milliken II, supra, 433 U.S. at 289- After 
elucidating the three criteria discussed earlier, the Supreme 
Court in Milliken II found that the plan under review there was 
constitutional. The interdistrict transfer plan under
consideration in this case conforms to the same three criteria.

36



balance of the current school year. Such transfers would 
disrupt the education of students in both sending and 
receiving schools. Planning and recruitment may continue so 
that enrollment may reach the levels contemplated in the
settlement agreement.

(2) C i t y-to-county transfers will be limited to a total of
6,000 students in the 1984-85 school year and to not more 
than 3,000 additional total transfers in each succeeding 
school year until the limit of 15,000 is reached., A 
shortfall of enrollment in one year may be made up in 
succeeding years.

(3) In the event 
exceeds the spaces 
applicants who would

the number of applicants for transfer 
available, priority shall be given to 
otherwise attend an all-black school.

(4) In Liddell V , supra, 677 F.2d at 631-632, we warned of 
the need for vigilance to control the costs of 
desegregation. Budgetary constraints persist, and so does 
the need for frugality. We are unwilling, however, to accept 
the State's suggestion that "complementary zones" be estab­
lished, which would effectively limit schools that 
transferees could attend. This would destroy the voluntary 
nature of the plan. Nevertheless, constant effort and 
careful planning must be made by all concerned to limit the 
costs of transportation, insofar as is consistent with the 
Constitution and the voluntary nature of the plan.

C. COUNTY TO COUNTY

Although 
between the 
approval to 
d istr icts. 
between the

TRANSFERS.

funding of transfers of students 
are unable to give similar 

of students between county 
the objective of transfers 
eradication of segregation

we approve State 
city and county, we 
the funding of transfers 
We emphasize again that 
city and county is the

37



within the 
violation 
violat ion, 
which were 
however, ar 
city. -Nor 
will materi

city. Such transfers are closely tailored to the 
and are clearly remedial with respect to that
according to the standards announced in Milliken_I_I_
discussed above. Transfers between county districts, 
e not geared to remedy the violation found within the 
does the record establish that intercounty transfers 
ally assist in desegregating the city schools.

We recognize that some suburban school districts have 
majority black enrollments and others have nearly all-white 
enrollments. We acknowledge that the suburban districts would 
achieve a further degree of desegregation by such transfers. We 
neither prohibit nor discourage such voluntary transfers between 
county schools but we cannot compel the State to pay for them 
absent a finding of an interdistrict violation.

HI. magnet schools and integrative programs.

A. MAGNET SCHOOLS .

The district court and this Court previously authorized the 
creation of magnet schools and integrative programs. About 8,000 
students (one-half of whom were blacks) participated in these 
schools and programs in the 1982-83 school year. Three hundred 
participants resided in the county. No one suggests that the 
magnet schools or integrative programs be discontinued.

The settlement agreement approved by the district court 
provides for the expansion or replication of existing magnet 
schools and programs and the development of new magnet schools 
and programs — in both the city and the county with total enroll­
ment to reach 20,000 students, twelve to fourteen thousand to be 
enrolled in city magnets and the balance in county magnets. The 
new schools would be phased in over the 1983-87 period.

To be eligible for transfer to the magnet schools, students

38



in good standing must be in the racial majority in their home 
districts and must meet the qualifications for the magnets. 
Special eligibility requirements allow white students from the 
city to attend city magnets if the students now attend schools 
that are less than ten percent or over fifty percent white. 
Black students in majority black districts are eligible to attend 
magnet schools and programs in other black majority districts if 
seats remain open after all of the host district's black students 
have been accommodated.

The State argues that insufficient attention has been 
devoted to developing a curriculum designed to attract county 
students. It also objects to being required to pay the full cost 
of building and operating the new magnets.

Before reviewing the State’s specific arguments, we observe 
that the utility and propriety of magnets as a desegregation
remedy is beyond dispute. In Adams v.__United— States , ..supra,
620 F . 2d at 1296-1297, we evaluated the remedies we had 
previously found to be constitutionally permissible. We
recommended ■[ra]aintaining existing magnet and specialty schools, 
and establishing such additional schools as needed to expand 
opportunities for an integrated education." JLL. at 1297. We 
reiterated our approval of magnet schools in Liddell III., su£ra_, 
667 F . 2d at 658 (emphasis omitted), where, in considering an 
intradistrict remedy, we directed the city and suburban school 
districts to undertake a "study of the feasibility of establish­
ing magnet schools located in suburban districts with attendance 
open to students of both the suburbs and the city. * The

14Our affirmance in this case does not preclude the district 
court from reconsidering these special requirements--to the 
extent that they permit a white student attending a "***}
less than ten percent white enrollment to transfer to a ci y 
magnet school— in light of decisions by the Supreme Court and 
this Court. The district court may reconsider these requirements 
upon the request of any party.

39



msuBast R r

location of these magnet schools should be determined by 
agreement between the St. Louis Board of Education and the 
suburban school districts involved." Finally, in Liddell V, 
supra, 677 F.2d at 642, we reaffirmed our conclusion that the 
district .court could "require that additional magnet schools be 
established at state expense within the city or in suburban 
school districts with the consent of the suburban districts where 
the schools would be located." As with interdistrict transfers, 
our previous determinations in this case concerning magnet
schools are law of the case.

Had we not in our previous decisions explicitly examined and 
approved the use of magnet schools and programs, the weight of 
precedent would nevertheless oblige us now to approve their 
use. In Milliner. II, supra, 433 U.S. at 272 , the Supreme Court 
mentioned magnet schools as a supplement to the compensatory and 
remedial programs which it approved in that case. Dissenting in 
another case", Justice Powell observed that the Supreme Court in 
Swann v. Ch ar lotte-Mecklenbur q Bd. of Educ^, supra, 402 U.S. at
26-2~, implicitly encouraged the use of magnet schools:

Incentives can be employed to encourage 
[majority-minority] transfers, such as creation of 
maanet schools providing special educational b«ne- 
fits and state subsidization of those schools that 
expand their minority enrollments, * * * These an^
like plans, if adopted voluntarily by States, also 
could help counter the effects of racialcould nelpimbalances between school beyond the reach of judicial correction

districts that are

Columbus Bd. of Educ. v. Penick, 443 U.S. 449, 488 (1979).

This Court also approved magnets as a means of desegregating the 
Little Rock schools in Clark v. Bd. of Educ. of Little Rock, 
705 F .2d 265, 269, 272 (8th Cir. 1983).

40



Courts of Appeals In several other circuits have also 
approved desegregation plans which include magnets. Arthur v_̂ 
Nvg'jist, 712 F . 2d 809, 811-813 (2d Cir. 1983); Berry v. School
District of Benton Harbor, 698 F . 2d 813, 819 (6th Cir.), cert_̂
denied, 104 S. Ct. 236 (1983); United States v. Texas Education
Agency,' 679 F.2d 1104, 1110 (5th Cir. 1982); Hart v. Community
School Bd. of Educ., 512 F.2d 37 , 54-55 (2d Cir. 1975) (citing
successful magnet programs in Boston, Massachusetts; Providence, 
Rhode Island; and Coney Island, New York); Stout— y_j— Jefferson. 
County Bd. of Educ., 483 F.2d 84 , 85 (5th Cir. 1973). District 
courts have also approved plans that include magnets. Tasby 
Wright, 520 F. Supp. 683, 741 (N.D. Tex. 1981), aff'd in part^ 
rev'd in part, on other grounds, 713 F . 2d 90 (5th Cir. 1983); 
Smiley v. Blevins, 514 F. Supp. 1248, 1260 (S.D. Tex. 1981). A 
survey of the literature reveals that magnets are being used in 
at least eighteen cities. Rossell, Magnet Schools as a Desegre^ 
gat ion Tool, 14 Urban Education 303, 320 (1979).

Despite the widespread approval of magnet schools by the 
federal courts, critics maintain that magnet schools cannot
correct the deep-seated evils of school desegregation. Se*x 
e.q. , Morgan v. Kerrigan, 530 F . 2d 401, 410 & n.10 (1st Cir.),
cert, denied, 426 U.S. 935 (1976); Bradley v. Milliken 484 F.2d
215, 243 (6th Cir.), rev'd on other grounds, 418 U.S. 717 (1974), 
Kelley v. Guinn, 456 F.2d 100, 108-109 (9th Cir. 1972), cert^
denied, 413 U.S. 919 (1973). Yet the criticisms in these cases
generally apply to desegregation plans in which magnets are the
principal tool in a -freedom of choice" plan. They function
differently in the settlement agreement approved here by the 
district court. Magnet schools are a single element of the
panoply of remedies approved by this Court and the district 
court. Like the magnet schools in Stout v. Jefferson County Bd_;_ 
of Educ., supra, 483 F.2d at 86, they are "part of a complex and 
many-faceted" plan. Magnets perform the salutary function of 
allowing "non-white as well as the white students so enrolled a 
chance to widen their horizons through the interplay of ideas and

41



Hart v.the absorption of diverse sub-cultural attitudes."
Comm jn i ty School Bd. of Educ., supra, 512 F .2d at 54.

Magnet schools under this plan will be distinguished by the 
features that have made them successful in other cities: 
individualized teaching, a low pupil-teacher ratio, specialized 
programs tailored to students' interests, enriched resources and 
active recruitment. See Rosenbaum and Presser, Voluntary Racial 
Integration in a Magnet School, 85 U. Chi. School Rev. 156, 156 
(1976); Levine and Eubanks, Attracting Nonminority Students to 
Macnet Schools in Minority Neighborhoods, 19 Integrateducation 
52, 57 (1981). Because they are supplemented by the extensive
procram of interdistrict transfers and compensatory education, 
these magnets will not resegregate, nor will they create a 
dualzstic system with elitist schools.

We dc not believe that the district court erred in ordering 
the State to pay the full capital and operating cost of magnet 
schools. As we noted earlier, the State's status as a violator 
of the Constitution compels the district court to remedy the 
deprivations the State has caused. In Liddell V , supra, 677 F.2d 
at 642, we held that the State could be ordered to undertake as a 
part of its remedial responsibility the development of magnets. 
Now we reaffirm that conclusion.

While we approve magnet schools and affirm the district 
court's decision concerning their funding, we see merit in the 
State's argument that careful study and planning roust precede 
replication or expansion of magnets. New magnet schools must be 
approved by the Magnet Review Committee and the district court. 
The planning process should focus on those schools and programs 
that present a reasonable probability of attracting suburban 
white students; only those schools which demonstrate such a 
probability should be approved. The new schools should be phased 
in over a period of four years as provided for by the settlement

42



agreement. The total number of students enrolled in city magnet
schools shall not exceed 14,000.

We impose an additional limitation on the development of 
suburban magnets. Although a panel of this Court approved the 
use of suburban magnet schools in Liddell 111. suRra, 667 F.2d at 
658-659; and Liddell V , supra, 677 F.2d at 641-642, the Court en 
banc does not believe that the record sufficiently supports this 
development. The county districts may proceed on their own, of 
course, without state funding. Any black city students who 
transfer into county-funded magnet schools would count toward 
achieving the district's plan goal and would contribute to the 
district's final judgment. State fiscal incentives would include 
payments to districts sending transferees to county-funded 
magnets, but the State will not be required to pay the capital or 
operating costs of county magnet schools as such.

B. PART-TIME INTEGRATIVE PROGRAMS.

Part-time integrative programs are primarily intended to 
provide integrative learning experiences for students attending 
all-black schools. Adams v. United States, su£ra, 620 F.2d at 
1296; Liddell IV, supra, 693 F . 2d at 727 ; Liddell— V, su£ra_,
677 F 2d at 642. These programs have been, and should continue 
to be, an important element of the overall plan to integrate the 
city schools. In determining the need for continuing the exist­
ing programs, or developing new ones, the City Board and the 
Budget Review Committee must keep the above standard in mind. 
They must also recognize that the number of black students in 
nonintegrated schools will decline dramatically over the next 
four years. We thus approve the district court's decision 
insofar as it permits the continuance of part-time integrative 
programs and requires the State to pay full cost of the approved 
prog rams.

43



We do not, however, specifically approve the new or expanded 
programs or the dollar amounts for these programs listed in the 
proposed budget (items A.4.10, A.4.11, A.5.01, A.5.02, A.5.04, 
A.5.05, A.6.01, A.6.03, and A.6.04). We rather require the City
Board to resubmit to the Budget Review Committee, discussed infra 
Section VI, a list of the new or expanded programs that they 
would propose to implement. The total cost of these programs 
should not exceed $1 million. Further, these programs must not 
duplicate -any programs approved in the quality education section 
of this opinion. Any dispute that emerges between the City Board 
and the State concerning these programs should be submitted for 
resolution by the Budget Review Committee and the district court 
in light of this discussion.

IV. Q U A L I T Y  EDUCATION I HP ROVE ME NTS .

The settlement plan approved by the district court includes 
compensatory and remedial programs to improve the quality of 
education throughout the St. Louis public schools and additional 
programs for the same purpose in the nonintegra ted schools. The 
district-wide improvements include a reduction in class size; 
restoration of art, music, physical education, and extracur­
ricular programs; creation of pre-school centers and all-day 
kindergarten programs; additional staff to address the needs of 
handicapped students; additional nursing and counseling staff; 
and expansion of library and other media resources and 
services. Administrative improvements include curriculum and 
staff development, evaluation and performance assessment, and 
enhanced long-range planning.

The additional improvements for the nonintegrated schools 
include a further class-size reduction in grades K through 8, to 
twenty pupils per teacher; additional remedial instruction time 
through after-school, Saturday, and summer school programs; 
parental involvement programs; and alternative education options 
for black students unable to attend magnet schools. Other

44



programs address motivational  needs of students in the a l l - b l a c k  

schools by stimulating opportunities for student success and 

recognition,  by introducing role models for academic achievement,  

and by establ ishi ng student concerns committees to address the 

morale, attendance, and behavior issues which emerge during the 

implementation of the plan.

A. LEGAL PRECEDENT FOR INCLUDING COMPENSATORY AND 
REMEDIAL PROGRAMS IN DESEGREGATION REMEDIES.

This Court suggested the necessity  for remedial and compen­

satory programs in Adams v. United States* *HR£a, 620 F.2d at 

1296, and rei terated that need in Liddell_V, supra, 677 F.2d at  

641-642 . We thus approve them in principle  as law of the case.  
See supra p. 28. Moreover, such programs have solid support in 

the case law as proper components of a desegregation remedy so 

long as they relate to the c on st itut i onal  v i o l a t i o n ,  are remedial  

in nature, and account for state and local  autonomy. M i l l i k e n 

Ii , supra, 433 U.S. at 280-281.

In Brown I , the Supreme Court recognized that segregation 

harms black children by generating "a fe el ing  of i n f e r i o r i t y  as 

to their status in the community that may a f f e c t  their hearts and 

minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." Brown J ., supra, 347 

U.S. at 494. In l i g h t  of this  harm, federal  courts have often 

required the inclusion of remedial programs in desegregation  

plans to overcome the i neq ual it ies  inherent in dual school  

systems. Mil l iken I I , supra, 433 U.S. at  283. See, e . fl ,̂ .Arth l̂  

v. Nyquist,  supra, 712 F.2d at 811; Oliver v. Kalamazoo B d. ._of 

Educ.,  640 F.2d 782, 789-790 (6th Ci r.  1980); Evans v.  Buchanan, 

582 F . 2d 750, 767-769 (3d C i r .  1978) (en banc), c e r t ,  denied,  

446 U.S. 923 (1980); United States  v . Texas, 447 F.2d 441, 448 

(1 9 7 1 ).  united States v.  Jefferson County Bd. of Educ_j_, 380 F.2d 

385, 394-395 (5th C i r . ) ,  c e r t ,  denied, 389 U.S. 840 (1967); Be{LE 

v.  School Di st .  of  Benton Harbor, 515 F. Supp. 344, 369-373 (W.D. 

Mich. 1981), a f f ' d  and remanded, 698 F.2d 813 (6th Ci r.  1983),

45



United States  v. Bd» of School Comm'rs of Indi anapol is , 
506 F. Supp. 657, 671-673 (S.D. Ind. 1979),  vacated in part on

other grounds, 637 F.2d 1101 (7th C i r . ) ,  c e r t ,  denied, 449 U.S.  

838 (1980).

Such programs " a s s i s t  students who previously attended a l l -  

Negro schools when those students transfer to formerly a l l - w hi t e  

schools.  . . . The remedial programs . . . are an integral  part
of a program for compensatory education to be provided Neg ro
students who have long been disadvantaged by the inequities  and 

discrimination inherent in the dual school system. Mil liken—II_,
supra, 433 U.S. at 284 (emphasis in o r i g i n a l ) ,  quoting

Plaquemines Parish School Bd. v. United S t a t e s , 415 F.2d 817, 831 

(5th Cir.  1969). Crucial  to the Supreme Court's  analysis in 

Milliken II is the concept that segregation not only i n f l i c t s  

harm on individual  black students,  but also builds "inadequacies  

[into the] * * * educational  system. " Mil l iken I I , supra,
433 U.S. at 284 (emphasis added). Thus, to remedy the e f f e c t s  of  

a dual system which operated for decades with the sanction of  

law, remedial e f f o r t s  must also concentrate on systemic educa­

t ional  improvements.

A secondary remedial o b j e c t i v e  of the q u a l i t y  education 

improvements is to enhance the appeal of the c i t y  school system,  

thereby promoting the chances of a stable and successful  

voluntary desegregation plan. The exodus of white parents and 

students out of fear of i ntegrat ion,  or "white f l i g h t , "  is no 

excuse for school o f f i c i a l s  to avoid desegregating.  Onited 

States  v. Scotland Neck C i t y  Bd. of  Educ. , 407 U.S. 484, 491 

(1972); Monroe v. Bd. of  Comm'rs, 391 U.S. 450, 459 (1968). Yet,  

"there is a val id  d i s t i n c t i o n  between using the defense of white 

f l i g h t  as a smokescreen to avoid i n te g ra t io n ,"  and addressing 

"the p ro babi l i t y  of white f l i g h t  in attempting to formulate a 
voluntary plan which would improve the r a c i a l  balance - in the 

schools without at the same time losing the support and 

acceptance of the p ubl ic ."  Higgins v. Bd. of  Educ. , 508 F.2d

46



779, 794 (6th Cir.  1974) (emphasis in o r i g i n a l ) ;  accord Parent  

A s s1n of Andrew Jackson High School v. Ambach, 598 F . 2d 705, 719 

(2d Cir.  1979). A c h i l d ' s  enrollment in a particular school is  

the result  of two decisions:  the government's student assign­

ment, and the parents’ decision to stay,  move, o r send their  
children to private school.  Thus, as Professor James Coleman 

i n s i s t s ,  "government p o l i c i e s  must, to be e f f e c t i v e ,  anticipate  

parental  decisions and obtain the parents'  act i ve  cooperation."  

Coleman, New Incentives for Desegregation, 7 Human Rights 10, 13 

(1978). Improving the q u al i t y  of integrated schools consequently 

promotes parental  acceptance of desegregation, and promotes the 

remedy's success.  Gewirtz,  Remedies and Resistance,  92 Yale L.J.  

585, 652-653 (1983). See also Rossell  6 Hawley, Po l i cy  Alterna^ 
t iv e s  for Minimizing White F l i g h t , 4 Educational Evaluation and 

Policy  Analysis 205 (1982).

The q u a l i t y  improvements for the a l l - b l a c k  schools serve a 

further remedial o b j e c t i v e .  A strong presumption e x i s t s  against  

the con st i tu ti on al  propriety of one-race schools,  Swann—  

Charlotte Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ^, supra, 402 D.S. at 26, and 

any desegregation plan leaving one-race schools must be c ar ef ul l y  

scrutinized.  I d . ; Lee v.  Macon County Bd. of Educ^, 616 F . 2d 

805, 809 (5th Cir.  1980). To overcome this  presumption of
u n c o n st i t u t i o na l i t y ,  a court must find that the existence of one-  

race schools is j u s t i f i e d  in l i g h t  of the part icular f a c t s  of the 

case and the f e a s i b i l i t y  of other desegregation techniques.  

Armstrong v.  Bd, of School Directors,, 616 F.2d 305, 321-322 (7th 

Cir.  1980); Tasby v.  E s t e s , 572 F.2d 1010, 1014-1015 (5th Cir.  

1978) . When no other f e as i b l e  desegregation techniques e x i s t ,  

then s p e c i f i c  remedial programs for students in the remaining 

one-race schools may be included as a means of ensuring equal

educational opportunity. See, e • 9 .las by— y.— Wright , supra,
713 F . 2d at 95-97; Clark v.  Bd. of Educ. of L i t t l e  Rock, supra,

-  47 -

i



705 F .2d at 272. 15

The d i s t r i c t  court held extensive hearings on the fairness  

of the q ual it y  education component, with lengthy testimony from 

l ocal  and State education o f f i c i a l s ,  a number of  expert  

witnesses,  -*nd representatives of the other p a rt i e s .  After  

reviewing the evidence and the recommendations of the court-  

appointed f inanc ial  advisor,  the court concluded that the 

programs f e l l  within the proper remedial scope:

The sole purpose for the expenditure of funds 
under this  Plan is to carry out the consti tutions  
re sp o ns i bi l i t y  to remove the v es t i ge s  of a segre 
gated school system. * * *

In no way should any funding provisions  
presently authorized by the Court be construed to 
authorize expenditures unrelated to Board
desegregation obl igat ions  under the Constitution  
and the Settlement Plan as approved.

Li ddel l  v. Bd. of Educ. , supra, 567 F.Supp. at 1051-1052

B. ANALYSIS OF THE COMPENSATORY AND REMEDIAL 

PROGRAMS APPROVED BY THE DISTRICT COURT.

The posit ion of the State before this  Court with respect to 

the q u al i t y  education programs is somewhat ambiguous. In i t s  

opening b r i e f ,  i t  argued that the c i t y  and county schools had not 

agreed to a q u al i t y  education package and that therefore the

15The q u a l i t y  of an a l l - b l a c k  school is  
students attend such schools v ol un tar i ly

also 
See

Incentives for Desegregation, 7 Human Rights 
The settlement plan recognizes this imperative in 
voluntary interdistrict transfers.

improved when 
Coleman, New 

14-15 (1-978). 
providing for

48



district court had nothing to approve.16 

that

I t  further asserted

It] he Quality Education [component] is not only
e sse nti al  from a contractua 15,000
also from a const i tu ti on al  standing. The 
black ' c h i l d r e n  in north S t .  Louis who « 1  
have th« opportunity to transfer under the Fia  
are s t i l l  victims of  c onst itut i onal  wrongdoing as 
found by the court.  The Quality Education section  

fhe Plan is v i r t u a l l y  the only remedy avai labl e  
?o \hose Slalk children to redress their wrong. 
Without i t  they stand as victims without redress.

State's Opening Brief  at 26-27.

I t  concluded by s t a t i n 9 that the court did not have the 

to modify the agreement to include the q ua li t y

component.

author i ty  
education

in i t s  reply b r i e f ,  the State changed the focus of  i t s  argu­
ment and complained that the provisions requiring improvement in 

the q ual it y  of education in the integrated schools were only 

remotely related to desegregation. I t  continued to assert  

position at oral  argument.

The State  is not a party to the settlement agreement. I t  

thus lacks standing to question the v a l i d i t y  of the agreement on 

i t s  terms. WaI t h ^ e l d i n .  422 0 . . .  480, SOI ( » 7 » > ,
Tucson School D i s t r i c t  No. 625 P.2d 834, 837 (»th Cir

Even assuming that t h e l t a t e  has standing to raise such 

question, the d i s t r i c t  court found that the part ies  had a meeting

16Section IV of the settlement plan s tat es:

ITlhe S t.  Louis County School districtsdonot 
ilii the necessary
schools to form an op n do not agree or

disagtee wUh . U  of the s p e c i f i c s  in this  basic  

design.

-  49



o£ the minds with respect to the e.senti.l terms of the 
agreement. This finding is not clearly erroneous.

The State clearly has standing, however, to challenge the
district court's funding order and did so before that cour
renews that challenge here. It argues, in substance, t
court approved funding for general educational improvement
the integrated schools which were unrelated to desegregation, 
the rntegt two£oid. First, the State contends that
Its argumen b approved if the Court can find that
these programs may only PP £chool syste» but fo_r the
they would have been a part ot tne c y
past unconstitutional segregation. This positron » « • • * * *  
case law and ignores the reality of the harm imposed by segre

°* a ---- -̂- - v;___ the numerous casescompensatory and remedial programs.
cited above approving such programs rested on such

r cion The point is that compensatory and remedial educ 
conclusion. Th* t» lnt to remedy the effects of
r c s J i r r  -  victim/ of segregation and the school
system itself. 17

17The State cites q^  Antonio S^slt£on
Rodriguez., 411 O.S. If < nof constitutional right to anythat St. Louis students **a but fails to note a criticalparticular level of educatio , .. case. Rodriquez held that
distinction between Rodrigue^ and thi case equaT“protection
property wealth is not a 8USPect^ a®f expenditure levels between 
clause, and thus ^ - P aratea^ ^  ^ o ^ l  Eolation. Hence, the

no Constitutional right to a particular
l e v e l  o£_ education. Id.

Our case unquestionably involves a suspect clj»®s aual school 
an established constitutional vioUtiw <« f f ^ r dly endorsed 
system). As noted above, court ha ovefcone educational
compensatory and *e™ediaJ; ef8eqregated schools,inadequacies imposed by segregate
notwithstanding.

50



The second aspect of the State’s argument is that there are 
no findings made by the district court, nor sufficient support in 
the record, to suggest that the quality education improvements 
are only remedial in nature.18 The Second Circuit recently 
observed that the line between remedial purpose and general 
educational improvements unrelated to desegregation is inevitably
blurred:

[A] court is entitled to require money for 
programs that materially aid the success of the 
overall desegregation effort. A program of that 
sort is not disqualified for needed funding simply 
because its inclusion improves the overall quality 
of the school system. At the same time a court 
must be alert not to permit a school board to use 
a court's broad power to remedy constitutional 
violations as a means of upgrading an educational 
system in ways only remotely related to desegre­
gation. Striking the balance necessarily requires 
considerable deference by a district court to the 
good faith representations of the school authori­
ties * * * and by a reviewing court to the 
knowledgeable assessment of a district judge 
intimately familiar with local conditions.

Arthur v. Nyquist, supra, 712 F.2d at 813 (citations omitted).

We think that the district court's order is fully supported 
as it relates to the quality improvements in the nonintegrated 
schools. Neither the State, the United States, nor the City 
specifically objects to these improvements. Moreover, they are 
consistent with the testimony of every expert witness that 
testified. The reduction in class-size was viewed by the

18To clarify, relating the remedy to the violation pursuant 
to Milliken II does not require a finding that ea^h educationa
program ~at Issue has in the past been ,i"f«Slte.d Evans ̂  discriminatory bias of a segregated school system. jL a —
Buchanan, supra, 582 F.2d at 769, quoting Jggff[433 U.S. at 27F. It is sufficient to determine that the remedi 
program is directed to cure the general condition offending the 
Constitution.

51



witnesses for the black plaintiffs as critical to t*Uln9 
achievement levels of black • ~

: r ^ o t e  a positive learni, climate reflect the
that the Supreme Court approved in MillUen I —
M i l l i k e n ,  402 F. Supp. 1096. U18-1U9 ‘ ^  ̂
------- ,, c tin P 2d 229 (6th Cir. 1976), afl_d, 633 U.S. Zb/
^ f ^ ' s c h o o l s ’ of emphasis assist in providing equal educa- 

one opportunity by providing alternative education option, for 
black students unable to attend magnet schools. The motiv.tronal 
norams are designed to bring about productive attitudes towar 

learning, and are essential in the opinion of expert ''it"*s” s 
e b the black plaintiffs. See Haywood. Compensator^luc^

tioTss Peabody 0. of Educ. 272. 274 (1982). Crain 6 Mahard,tuin, 59 Peaboay T,nmue Minority Academic
How D e s e g r e g a t i o n-- Orders-- May-- ""Pr ... ..--TT
achievement, 16 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 693, 702 (1982).

Notwithstanding our affirmance in principi. of the district 
court's order insofar as it relates to the all-black school . «  
believe that the following modifications to the order should 
made so that careful planning and effective implementation m 
proceed without disruption of the current school year:

(1 , to the extent that any of the programs have 
been heretofore instituted, they may
continued. The remaining programs may be insti­
tuted at the beginning of the 1984-85 schoo 
year. The summer school program may be implemented
for the summer of 1984.

,2) The reduction in class site from present 
levels to the 20:1 pupil-teacher ratio shouldI e 
made over a period of four years beginningi in 19 
85. The phased reduction recognises that as -a y 
a. 12,500 additional black students may transfer o 
county school, in the next four years, and that

52



many as 3,000 more black students may transfer to 
magnet schools during the same period. By 
coordinating the class-size reduction with the 
transfers, student and teacher disruption can be 
lessened and the construction or rehabilitation of 
school buildings to house the smaller classes mini­
mized .

(3) The amount budgeted for item B.1.01, Coordin­
ation of Instruction, should be reduced by one- 
half. Evelyn F. Luckey, an expert witness for the 
Liddell plaintiffs, testified that the program 
could be successfully accomplished within the 
limits of the reduced amount.

(4) The schools of emphasis should be phased in 
over a two-year period beginning in 1984-85.

(5) Detailed planning for the programs in the all­
black schools should continue so that the programs 
can be implemented on schedule.

we cannot fully agree with the district court's conclusion 
that all of the quality education improvements in all schools are 
closely related to the integration process. While we concur with 
the Second Circuit's view that a district court should show 
considerable deference to the good faith representations of the 
school authorities, and that we should show similar deference to 
the judgment of the district court, a review of the record leaves 
us with the firm conviction that the district court erred in 
approving many of the programs in the quality education budget.

We begin our analysis by indicating our areas of agreement 
with the district court. Initially, we believe there is strong 
support in the record for approving those programs necessary to 
permit the city schools to regain, and then retain, their Class

53



M *  status. This standard is developed by the Department of 
Education of the State of Missouri. See Handbook for Classifi­
cation and Accreditation of Public School Districts in Missouri 
,1,80). Seventy-four percent of the children attending Missouri 
public schools attend schools that have this rating. Missouri 
School Directory (1982-83). The City Board was denied this
rating because its classes were too large, it had too many 
uncertified teachers, it lacked counselors in the elementary 
grades, it did not provide art, music, and physical education n 
the elementary grades, and its library and media services vere 

19inadequate.

Second, we find adequate support in the record for preschool 
centers (budget item A.4.01, $811,000), and for planning and
program development ,a part of budget item A.1.01. $885,000,
Both of these programs are recommended by the State Department of 
Education, and both have been shown to be closely related to the 
desegregation process.

Third, we find adequate support in the record for all-day 
kindergartens (budget item A.4.02, $6,129,000), parental involve­
ment (budget item A.8.05); desegregation planning (budget item 
A 8 13, $41,000); long-range planning (budget item A.8.15,
$431,000); and public affairs (budget item A.8.06, $184,000).
The all-day kindergarten program serves several important compen­
satory and remedial objectives. Much of the testimony at the 
fairness hearings emphasised the importance of 
desegregation efforts on the earlier grades, as younger children 
have developed fewer racial prejudices and differences in 
performance are narrower. See Hawley, Effective ^^ation^l 
strategies for Desegregated Schools, 59 Peabody J. of Educ. 209,

»Since this C-t'a orde^of > £ £ * «  ^
t ^ % eta tneeC has Lc“ n?Jy “es^red the AAA status to the city 
schools.

54



214 (1982). The additional instruction time will also assist in
building prerequisite skills for city pupils. The testimony also 
emphasized that many of the children came from single-parent 
families that did not provide them with the skills which would 
permit them to compete with other children at the first-grade 
level. See Milllken II, supra, 433 U.S. at 284. The all-day 
kindergarten program is an expensive one which must be 
implemented carefully if waste is to be avoided, and the full 
benefits of the program realized. We therefore direct that the 
program be phased in over a period of at least two years.

Parental involvement is similarly emphasized, both in the 
record and in the literature, as crucial to the success of the 
desegregation plan. See, e.<^, Hawley, Effective Educational 
strategies for Desegregated Schools, su£ra, at 212, 225-226.
Because many students will not be attending their neighborhood 
schools as a result of the student transfers, special parent- 
staff seminars and other programs will be critical in developing 
and maintaining parental involvement. The changes involved in 
implementing the plan, and the future demographic and student 
enrollment shifts, render long-range planning essential to t e 
successful desegregation of the city schools. The public affair5 
program is essential to citizen awareness and acceptance o t e
plan.

In light of the foregoing discussion, we approve the 
district court's funding order insofar as it relates to programs 
necessary to the city schools to retain its AAA rating. While 
the record is not entirely clear as to precisely what programs 
the State required the City Board to institute to regain this 
rating, it appears that they are budget items A.2.01, library an 
media services; A.2.02, audio visual services; A.3.01, lower 
class size; and A.3.02, restoration of art, music, and physica 
education. It is the Intention of the Court that these budget 
items be implemented only insofar as necessary for the city 
schools to retain their AAA status. Retaining this status does

-  55 -

I



not include a further class-size reduction in the integrated 
schools. We also approve the following additional programs: 
preschool centers, planning and program development, all-day 
kindergarten, parental involvement, desegregation planning, long- 
range planning, and public affairs.

We cannot, however, find adequate support in the record for 
the remaining programs. All are desirable, but the City Board 
has not made the case that they are necessary to provide equal 
educational opportunities to the children of St. Louis, or are 
otherwise essential as remedial or compensatory programs.

C. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE INTEGRATED AND 
NONINTEGRATED SCHOOLS

The settlement agreement describes the age and condition of 
the city schools: Generally, they are in a condition of old age, 
rapid deterioration, and extreme deferred maintenance. Thirty- 
four of the nonintegrated black schools and twenty-one of the 
integrated schools are over fifty years old. Nearly one-fourth 
of the building area in the city schools is over seventy-five 
years old. Nearly one-half of the building area in the city 
schools is over sixty-five years old. More than two-thirds of 
the building area in the city schools is over fifty years old. 
At the fairness hearing, the district court heard uncontradicted 
evidence as to the condition of the city school facilities which 
paralleled that recited in the settlement agreement.

In the last twenty-four years, St. Louis voters have 
defeated thirteen proposed bond issues. The only bond issue to 
pass during this period was in 1962, and approval came only after 
resubmission to the voters. Significantly, both of the last two 
proposed bond issues were approved by a simple majority; the 
constitutional requirement of two-thirds voter approval, however, 
blocked passage of these issues.

56



At the fairness hearing the State argued that .ore careful 
planning -as required before renovation or new construct on 
programs could be initiated, particularly in ll9 ht o «*P*= 
declining enrollment in the city schools. It * 80 ,t9“* t 
the schools were in a deplorable condition because V
.School Board had failed to maintain them over the years 
questioned whether certain items were properly included in the 
capital improvement budget, contending that theŷ  -ere rout ne 
maintenance items that should be funded exclusrvely by the City
Board.

The district court's order and memor 
facility improvement program at length.

andum did not discuss the 
It simply stated that

,b, the City Board shall submit t o ^ “ ^ters.

City's public schools; [and]

(c) should that bond 
two-thirds majority vote 
the Court will consider 
obtain the funds deemed

issue fail to obtain the 
required by State law, 
an appropriate order to 
sufficient to meet the

S p y i n g  c o r s u t u t io n a f  ^ i i g ^ t i o n  S
desegregate the City’s public schools.

ridd.ii V. Bd. of Eduĉ _, supra, 567 P. Supp. at 1056.

Pursuant to 
program with 
total to be 
Board bonds.

that order, the City Board formulated a building 
a total cost of S127 million, with one-half of the 
financed by the issuance of $63.5 million in City

The bond issue was presented to the voter, -  ^"^ssu!'.
3,83. and fifty-five percent of the voters approved the iss

v f hi» voters in the predominately blackEighty-four percent of the voters in v
yards voted for the issue, but sixty-five percent of the

57



in the predominately white wards voted against it. The bond 
issue was defeated because it failed to receive a two-thirds
majority.

On appeal to this Court, the State does not question either 
the need to improve facilities, nor its obligation to help pay 
for these improvements. In its opening brief, it argues that if 
the bond issue fails, the whole plan will fail for lack of 
funding because it is unfair to expect the State to pay the fu 
costs of the improvements. It also renews its argument that, 
because the county schools failed to agree to a detailed building 
program, the settlement agreement as a whole must fail. Finally, 
it asserts that, in any event, the district court is without 
authority to enter an order requiring a tax levy to fund the City 
Board's share of the improvements. In its reply brief, the State 
simply states that the provision of the order requiring "exten­
sive capital improvements" is "entirely out of proportion to the 
constitutional violations found by the District Court."

The district court did not err in holding that the State had 
an obligation to pay one-half of the costs of the capital 
improvement program necessary to restore the city facilities to a 
constitutionally acceptable level, and we find no merit in the 
State's suggestion that the district court's order cannot stand 
because the county districts failed to agree to the details of 
the facilities improvement program. See supjra pp. 49-50.

There is merit to the State's argument that more careful and 
detailed planning should precede action by the district court and 
that this planning should identify the projects to be undertaken, 
establish the cost of each project and set a more specific 
schedule for the improvements. Planning and scheduling are 
particularly important in view of the expected decline in enroll­
ment.

58



on remand, therefore, the City Board should promptly Id. T 
the projects to be undertaken, estimate the cost °f «=* ;
nd set a reasonably detailed schedule for the co-pleUo> o each
project. The projects having the highest ^atend.
uled for completion at the earliest possi referendum
the City Board should consider the^esir.biHty of ̂  refers^ ^
on a bond issue which can be ni ts to be built in later

s r ^ ^ t . 1" « - *  c£ W i - *■»
detailed plans and schedules.

As soon as the City Board has prepared the new plans
estimates, and schedules. to the
Review Committee, discussed .infra Secti

„ uhpn the district court has approved them, a new district court. When th defeated

-  -  —
will be funded. See Infra. Section V.

V. FINANCING DESEGREGATION IN ST. LOUIS CITT SCHOOLS

in November, 1982, Missouri voters 
.Proposition C, which directed local school o£ the
their operating levies by an amount equal to f y P 
revenues local school districts would receive unde. «
increase in the state sales ta. Mo Rev. tat.^S ^

««>• In US JUlY 5',19 Estate taxes, r,dd.ll v- M . - S lthis rollback of l«al real • ^  the Board of
Educ. , ,supr£. 567 T• pp‘ Quality education
Education to use t h i s ‘% t Loui6 3chools to their AAA

rt:ir rr:.nr£. - : -ss
the district court's injunction of t e r ^  r6versal at
grounds, for the injunction was alrea y n p * 8ysten of
that time would have seriously disrupte ^ „e
school finance. Liddell VI. sn£i>. 717 F'2d

-  59



sustain the injunction against the rollback for the balance of 
this school year for the same reason. The equitable nature of 
that decision obliges us now to examine the propriety and the 
merits of the district court's injunction of the rollback with 
respect to years beyond 1983-84. We also consider the district 
court's authority to order a further increase in property taxes 
to fund operating expenses or capital improvements.

We hold that the district court's broad equitable powers to 
remedy the evils of segregation include a narrowly defined power 
to order increases in local tax levies on real estate. Limita­
tions on this power require that it be exercised only after 
exploration of every other fiscal alternative.

The district court's use of broad equitable powers 
concerning school desegregation costs has been approved by 
previous opinions of the Supreme Court. Thus, it has declared 
that, when predicated on a right and a violation, "the scope of a 
district court's equitable powers to remedy past wrongs is broad, 
for breadth and flexibility are inherent in equitable 
remedies." Swann v. Char lot te-Mecklenburg Bd. of Eduĉ ., supra, 
402 U.S. at 15. These powers subsume a broad range of ideas and 
tactics: equity assures that "all reasonable methods be available 
to formulate an effective remedy." North Carolina State Bd.,_of 
Educ. v. Swann, 402 U.S. 43, 56 (1971). These powers may also be 
applied broadly "to achieve the greatest possible degree of 
[relief] taking into account the practicalities of the 
situation." Davis v. Bd. of School Comm'rs of Mobile County, 
402 U.S. 33, 37 (1971).

In Griffin v. School Bd. of Prince Edward Counter, 377 U.S. 
218 (1964), the Supreme Court acknowledged that the district
court may order an increase in taxes to fund schools where the 
State has defaulted on its obligation to provide an equal educa­
tional opportunity to all students. The Court did not limit the 
scope of its holding by ordering a return to the previous tax

60



,ur#s It indicated only that the tax must be 
levy or procedures. , ination" and that it
■necessary to prevent farther racial ,aintain
must "raise funds .debate to «°P*n, o^rate an ^
without racial discrimination a public school syste _
233.

c i c f 2d 1365 (8 th C ir .) »
_ » u ^  .— edged
cert, denied, 423 U.S. *.*x lew in
the district court's remedial^pw e ^ r ^  ^  ^  district court 
excess of that authont suburban school
ordered the consolidation of three St L „  , tt
aistricts with disparate tax rates ««■••. ^ a n y  of the three
concluded that a uniform t a x 9 operate the desegre-
($6.01, would be that .,tlhi. rate, inclusive
gated district, f ' atlserice thfi total aebt of the enlarged
oE the —  - c «  > °t:“ ave been approved by the voters for
district, shall be ae 11(c). Missouri
the purposes of ^  „ te, the district
constitution. Id a ^  no r e a s o n a b l e  possibility that
court also noted th reauired two-thirds vote
such a tax levy would be approved by th paired
in the aftermath of the desegregation order. Id.

„. r„,„t sitting en banc unanimously approved aOn appeal, this Court sitting e districts. Judge
rate of $5.38, the highest rate of the three 
Stephenson, writing for the full Court, stated:

It is anomalous to ?uggest that ̂ d i s t r i c t
court has the power to ls®h power to fashion an system but does Jiot have^the £  roUn# state Board
appropriate remedy. In rn2 p-g— 43, 45 *' * *•nf Education v. Swann, 402 U.S. *:>,
court stated:

CD f a state-imposed limitation on ^£Chool

sssi?
-  61 -

l



.. nn«ratcs to hinder vindi 
9ciVt!on” o£ federal constitutional guarantee..

We have lltewi.e thaV'^S'e
tation of a BC^|°1 h federal courts under theremedial power of the teae^ Umlted by state
Fourteenth w®*,* «f Eduction of Sevier,
law." Haney v•County, supra,, 429 r.2

We are satisfied that the
the authority to implement its ^  made for the
by directing that th^ operation of thelevying of taxes essentxal to the^ope.^^ h r,
new school distri<? * ld ^  given to the plan
that deference sh° ^ h by the state and county
submitted in Jf ii. largely accepted by theofficials and which was la:eg JY fchat with the
court. It was the ^ ® w , through action of thereceipt of anticipated funds tnr^g wqu1<3 be
legislature the Prej ^ aidJJation should be given adequate. Maximum consideration ^ 1  officifi,
the views of the aDpear compatible withconcerned so lon<g1 as t y PP imum rate in the
^ w  ^ ^ t rret^s^uirte reduced to *5.38 per
h nnd r&d•

a. at 1 3 7 2 - 1 3 7 3  ( c i t a t i o n s  a n d  f o o t n o t e  o m i t t e d ) .

The City cites Evans .. ----- —  district court is
■»78> <enbane>' £°C fcder^1°tar1 increase to fund a court-imposed
without authority o order a ^  *  so construed.
Jesegregation plan. Griffin, made clear that
indeed, the court en banc, rely’ "9 -  allocated
the district court h d t  ^  I .  to operate the
-no funds, or substant y action by the State would
remainder of the school system, su operations of the
clearly be unacceptable “  ln addition, in Evans, the
desegregation decree. — ' .obvious inherent political
district court had acted be run thelt course.- Id.
safeguards * * l-"> J ? " * *  „ tltely consistent with Evans
Our instructions on remand are en «  lltlcal funding
because the district court must defer to t po

V . Buchanan, 582 F.2d 750 (3d Cir.

62 -



Me readprocess before it may consider ordering a tax increase.
Evans for the proposition we stated at the outset of this drscus- 
sion: a district court may require an increased tax levy, ut
only Where necessary to remedy a violation of the Constitution, 
and only after exhausting all other alternatives.

The City and State also cite San Antonio Independent School
..... . V. Rodrigues, 411 O.S. 1 (1973), in arguing that the
courts should defer to the legislative expertise of state an 
local governments. That case is also distinguishable. It 
involved an equal protection challenge of Texas's use of t e 
property tax for funding education. The appellants claimed that 
this system of taxes per se was discriminatory because it̂  raise 
disparate revenues in different school districts according to 
disparities in the assessed valuation of property within the 
districts. The Supreme Court found no suspect class affected an 
no fundamental rights at stake. Instead, it relied on the 
•rational basis’ test and deferred to legislative expertise in 
fiscal matters. On the other hand, in this case, the City Board 
and State have both been adjudged constitutional violators in 
matters involving a suspect classification. Moreover, in this 
case, no one challenges the mechanics of the tax system, which 
was the central issue in the passage from Rodriguez that the
State cited.20

70The State y” ?  . S i S H  judgmentdistrict court may not order a tax 1 ̂ y ^  caseB arose tn a
against a municipality.^ t a „a.tae „ rrmntv Court of Clark 
commercial wntBrt. in so°ught a co~u7t^

tax levy to pay interest c:oupons £  levy taxes
year the bonds .^wcre* is^ed^the county had no obligationbecause until the bonds wef* Baa<; w. c i t v  of Watertown,and no authority to levy the ._j Countv Court
86 O.S. (19 Wall.) 107 (18 )» ® /"1879) involved bondholdersof Macon C°unyy, 99 0.S. 582 a679).f__inv^ In
I X ^ T ^ T o ^ d e ^ i n e d ,
were° formed. * * S i nce^thV statutes became, by implication, a part 
(Continued)

-  63



that the district court's equitable power Our conviction that th increases or the■ 2 nowsr to order taxi n c l u d e s  the r e m e d i a l  p o w e r  g r o u n d i n g  the

-  —  i 1: : : .... =—
c o n t r a c t s  clause of t h e  ^  ^  c o u r t  „ „  t e o o , n i * . d  t h a t  a
art. 1» 5 10, cl. 1* . . o t  be i m p a i r e d  s o l e l y
m u n i c i p a l i t y ' s  c o n t r a c t u a l  o b  iga 10 t a x  in o r d e r  to m e e t

b e c a u s e  s t a t e  law re^ i C ^  ^ i t y ^ f  New O r l e a n s  r a i s e d  s u c h  an 
t h o s e  o b l i g a t i o n s .  d e b t s  o w e d  to t h e  r e c e i v e r  of
a r g u m e n t  in an a t t e m p t  to a v o i  ^  ^  nQ t r 0 u b ie h o l d i n g
a metropolitan police oar , the taxes for
that the courts could require the e U y ^  coUect . tax
which the judgment was ren ere , receiver." Louisiana
therefor for the benefit of the ”  215 u.S. 170,
ex rejLl__Hubert_ĵ _Jjaygr— y. Kansas^ower
181 (1909).

103 contract it cannot simply walk away fromitself enters into a contr . Trust Co. v.Jiew

-  « - V ?jersex, <31 O.S. 1, ia. N o t w i t h s t a n d i n g  these
e x e r c i s e d  if debts a r e  States a r e  b o u n d
e f f e c t s ,  the C o u r t  has r e g u l a r l y  held that «,
by their debt c o n t r a c t s . -  ( F o o t n o t e  o m i t t e d . l ) .

.. have recognized that municipalities may 
Similarly. courts ’ b pleading constitutional or

not avoid their liability r||||1nrr n-a Thrift Co. v.
statutory debt limitations.^ 19SS) 1 fiaSS-Si-S^
ĵ ujton, 131 SUpP; ’ J35> m  p.2d 80. 83 (1941)1 RaynorJU 
Martin v. Harris., 75 . • loin̂  • City Catlettsburg.
King Countx, 97 P.Jd 696, 708 “  ' „ 6 ’91 S.w.2d 56, 59-60
v. Davis' Administration, 262 Ky.

___________________________  , . . ».h<, U B e  o f  t h e  t a x i n g  remedy.
of the c o n t r a c t ,  they p r e c l u d e  Toan xas'n v. T o p e k a ,  87 O.S.

W i ioav for a default on bonds laue* the tax would not have been 
lawful‘^because 'ft' wo'uWTot ‘have been levied for a public 
purpose.

-  64



. 242 p 1003, 1004 (Ari*.
(1936) ; 1?9 200 ( C l .  » » )
1926); City of Lona_Bearh ^  ^ ^ yond their legal U» i «  *Vr : : : "  r : , »

, , . . . . . .  - ~
1983, order in light of the f°^lined to order an increase in 
note that the district cout purposes until the need for such
real estate levies for opera i Jt also declined to
revenues had been cle“ ly **“ "*,' lmp’ovements until such tine 
order a tax increase to fun mlned by the C ity  Board as
a5 a bond issue of an amoun apital improvement needs of
sufficient to meet the most l e g a t e  had been

It w=nt on. however, to Mo! Re!! Stat.
to not reduce its operating dUect the State to refrain
5 164.013 (Proposition C), a ^  that it would other-
£rom withholding from the C y lt required that the

- r  r. r  rjrr ~ -
r r  :.;;r —  - — "
reduce its operating levy on July 1,

. . . . . » “  “
accompanied by a factual fin x 9 J  br insufficient. Me
other fiscal alternatives ‘ ^  e„ n though
are unwilling to read such a find 9 ^  ^  m t l e  ot no budget 
the record reveals that e ^  has been cut, real estate
surplus, federal aid for ese9 slightly in recent years
values in the district ‘*«'j £unds have been largely
and referenda to secure addi ^  court .ust allow the
unsuccessful.21 On remand, th £oc the 1984-85
rollback under Proposition C to

65 -



school year unless it 
available or sufficient 
addition, it shall not 
makes similar findings.

finds that no other alternatives are 
to finance its desegregation order. In 
require any additional levy unless it

Specifically, the district court ahould, firat, pro»ptly 
determine the amount of money that .ill be required in 1984-8S to 
fund the desegregation order and it ahould subsequently determine 
the funds necessary for each of the succeeding years. Second, 
the district court should determine whether the City Board is 
a b l e, with its own resources, to fund its share of the costs. In 
making this determination, the district court shall consider the 
reduced budgetary pressures that will result from the transfer of 
nearly 6,000 students from city to county schools in W 8 4 -8 5 and 
from the transfer of an additional 9,000 students in the follow- 
i „ g  three years. In addition, the district court shall consider 
the e f f e c t s  of students transferring to magnet schools and of the 
C ity  Board's receipt of transfer payments under the settlement 
agreement for sending students to county schools. Third, 
district court determines that the City Board lacks resources 
sufficient to fund its share of the desegregation order, it shall 
consider alternative sources of revenue. These alternat ves
include, but are not limited to: submission of a referendum to 
the voters for an increased operating levy; or authorisation of 
the C i t y  Board by the State legislature to impose non-real estate 
taxes within the city. Fourth, if the voters refuse to*PProve a 
higher tax levy, or if the legislature falls to authorise the 
City Board to raise taxes fro. non-property tax sources, or if 
the City Board and the State, as Joint tortfeasors, are unable to

“ Since 1970, five referenda have been submitted^ the
voters to Increase the 'ut,h° , z9'76 remainder failed evenrequested increase passed in ' received a majority vote,though three of these remaining f̂ ou $100 of assessed
We note, however, that an approved by a
valuation in the current o p e r _ JJt art. 10, 5 11(c). simple majority of the voters. Mo.

-  66 -



agree on an alternate method of raising the City Board's share of 
the cost, the district court shall conduct an evidentiary hearing 
and thereafter enter a judgment sufficient to cure the constitu­
tional violations which we have found in a manner consistent with 
this and prior opinions.

y i . b u d g e t review committee.

The settlement agreement, the district court's funding order 
and opinion, and this Court's opinion have established detailed 
guidelines for desegregating the city schools over the next four 
years. The agreement provides for a number of committees to 
assist in desegregation. They include the Desegregation "°nitor- 
ing and Advisory Committee, the Magnet Review Committee, and the 
voluntary Interdistrict Coordinating Council. The function of 
the latter committee is to coordinate and administer the student 
transfers, the voluntary teacher exchanges and the part-time 
educational programs. A Recruitment and Counseling Center as 
also been established. Each of these committees and the Center 
fulfill important functions in the desegregation process and may 
be continued and funded in accordance with the settlement agree- 
ment at the discretion of the district court.

The district court also outlined the budgeting procedures 
that would be followed:

11. For the effective and timely impleraen- 
tation of the Settlement Plan, as *Pproved, the 
following budgeting procedure shall■ “PP1*
recard to all actual and reasonable costs»** J£p transportation costs and costs incurred for the 
student transfer payments made to sending 
receiving districts, incurred pursuant to the 
approved Plan:

(a) each participating school deliver to State defendants a proposed bud9 et for 
all desegregation programs and »ct1^  e|ettiement
Ifan t r *  ^subsequent years], the budgets shall be delivere

67



before March 1 of the precedingto the State on or 
fiscal year;

year-;
. » r\ r\ or before [March 15 of each preceding

f u c i r , " . ?  aL \ r  *'.̂ jarsszrelating to bud9!f?^ts the representatives may
ci°n • r rn ‘thV'court l jiint statement of budgetary 
matters thfn remaining' in dispute for the Court a 
cons ider at ion.

[T1he State shall submit in writing any objec

tirarepyreVentat“ es may^submrt “  the Court a 
joint statement of budgetary matters 
remaining in dispute for the C 
ation;

(d) the Court’s f:inancial advise:^J^state* ands r £
wrTtingS dTrectl'y ^or'Vt a°ny subsequent hearing 
that may be required; and

(e) for the 1983-1984 f:iscal ^•^."^equtled
disagreements t h a t be deferred to Onited meetings and reports -ill be^jeter  ̂ ^
S ta te s  Magistrate David Nĉ  subsequent fiscalor before hugust s, !»«• '“ ,„ J  remaining
disputedtbudget'Jissues in a manner the Court deems 
appropriate.

then 
consider-

present 
'either in

Liddell v. Bd. of Educ^, su£ra, 567 F. Supp. at 1057.

We believe 
respects: (D
does not give

that the budgeting process is deflelen n 
it falls to require long-range budgeting! (2) it 
the State, the principal funding source for the

68



i ar an adequate role In the budgetary process; and (3) It fsUs
r ^ d e  l  effective method of reviving
hpfore they reach the district court. As a result,before tney r . resolving disputes.ust spend an inordinate amount of its time resolving
that should be resolved by the parties.

We direct that a small budget committee be named, consisti g 
of two representatives of the State of Missouri, one represen­
tative from the city schools to be selected by the City^ Board,
one representative^to ̂ be "expe'rt in school

financing ^a^the ea'rli.st possible date. The
expert shall serve as chairman of the committee. Its «“ P
sibilities will be determined by the district court
include:

r„::T:,v:vr,r, -r,.:1» s r  r  i-tr--
and the City Board to anticipate the funds that will beand the city >lso £otce the participants to
to fund the plan. Th y .h t will occur in
consider at an early date the ^ ^ V ' o n  Tn the intlgrated and 
the city schools’ student popu a 1 ln the
nonintegrated schools and magnet schoo ,
effort to control costs.

(2) Receiving the annual budgets prepared by the participat- 
.no Ichool districts on the same date that the budgets are to be
09 . . h th state The State and each participating district received by the State. T of >9teement and disagree-
will identify, in writing, th.it determined by
ment relating to budgetary matters at a ti The
the court on the recommendation of the u ge

-  69



Budget Committee will make every effort to resolve differences as 
to the budget in accordance with the principles set forth in the 
settlement agreement, the district court’s order and this 
opinion. Any unresolved disputes will be promptly presented to 
the district court with the recommendations of the court- 
appointed expert. The district court will resolve any
disputes. This resolution is not an appropriate task for a 
United States Magistrate. The number of disputes should be 
dramatically reduced if the parties participate in good faith in 
the procedure outlined. The district court will enter an 
appropriate order with respect to the funding of the Budget
Committee.

V I I .  OTHER ISSUES.

Several issues raised by various parties remain for resolu­
tion by this Court. We hold the following:

A. ST. LOUIS TEACHERS.

Ths district court did not err in denying the St. Louis 
Teachers Union Local 420 the right to intervene in these proceed­
ings. The Union has, however, timely raised its interest in 
seeking preferential hiring rights for black city teachers in 
county school districts, and this interest is sufficient to allow 
its intervention in future proceedings. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 24.

We note further that the settlement plan contains annual 
hiring goals for black teachers and administrators in the county 
schools. Implementation of these goals requires only nominal 
monetary support from the State, and provides significant bene­
fits to the county districts and the black plaintiffs. We 
approve this section of the settlement plan.

70



B. ■ORTH ST. LOOIS PARENTS.

The « * , . . .  —  -  ri:::: f::
tion argue that « . « the Interest, of the blech
settlement. Plan because it s . o r l ^  ^  Bchool. £or the
students who will rema transfer to county
interests of the black students who the amount of
schools. They base their argumen on ^  ^  ^  county achools
state funding for students w o £unding to compensate
greatly exceeds the amount o= schools.
Students who remain in neighborhood all-black

_ in equal educational 
As we have discussed, supra p. - schools is a

f students remaining m  oneopportunity for aggregation remedy. The settle-
crucial concern in « » B1 * uty improvements for the ali­
ment plan contains significant qual y „ith Binl„,al
black schools, and we have approved these prog the
l im ita tio n s .  -  - d  ~  “  ^ t ^ g  -  - b l a c k
claim that the i"t«« we 6ee the record, black students
schools are being Tilternatives: attend their neighborhood
Will now have several alte county, or
school, attend an integrated school in the
attend a magnet school.

Both the North St. Louis Parents and the City arg #1
aistrict court failed to provide “  did not err in
class members. «e hold that the district p„ . Bt. as
this regard. Nor did it ce3pond in detail to
class members of due process by far 9 ^  aiittlct court’s
their objections to the sett emen  ̂ reasoned examination of 
opinion reveals that it *ngag* concerning whether the plan is 
objections raised by class mem ^ Bd. ot Educ^. supra,
fair, reasonable and adequate. M ^ e i ------ -
567 F.  Supp. a t  1 0 4 2 - 1 0 4 7 .

-  71



c .  THE CITY'S PETITION POP *  MUT OP PROHIBITION, AND 

ITS OTHER REMAINING OBJECTIONS.

In our recent en b.nc order, we reserved . *»“ «  «  the
City's petition for a writ of prohibition until «e consldere
. its on appeal. ™  *reasons discussed above, i s m  pp. 59-66, concerning the City
Board's property tax rate, we deny the writ.

For reasons discussed throughout this opinion, we hold that 
the district court did not fail to evaluate the settlement agree- 

. oroperlyr we thus dismiss the City's objections on this 
Hint The City argues further that the district court erred in 
H  ig o lifting cross-examination of experts at the fairness 
hearing. We find no abuse of discretion by the district court in 
this regard. See Fed. R. Evid. 611.

D. FINAL JUDGMENT FOR THE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

we specifically approve the settlement agreement “
it relieves the participating county school districts of li.bil 
ity if they meet the goals set forth in the settlement plan
within five years.

We have considered all other arguments and find they have no 
mer it.

CONCLUSION

The judgment of the district court is affirmed in part. and
. ..tter is remanded to the districtreversed in part, and this matter is re _ .

court for action consistent with this op mon. citUens
the City of St. Louis, the North St. Louis Parents *nd Ci*1’* the city or s Teachers Union Local 420
for Q u a l i t y  E d u c a t i o n ,  a n d  the S . c o s t s  of
w i l l  e a c h  b e a r  t h e i r  o w n  c o s t s  o n  a p p e a l .
appeal shall be taxed to the State of M i s s o u r i .  The mandate of 
this Court will issue forthwith.

-  72



JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting 
in part.

The Court today approves a settlement which in great part 
requires funding by the State of Missouri. The State of Missouri 
was not a party to this settlement. In the litigation before us 
the State has been found to be a constitutional violator insofar 
as there is an intradistrict constitutional violation within the 
City of St. Louis. The Court today improperly requires the State 
to fund a remedy far broader than this constitutional violation, 
an admittedly interdistrict remedy involving not only the schools 
in the City of St. Louis but the schools in St. Louis County. 
Accordingly, I must dissent in part.

It is necessary that we first determine what this Court has 
found to be the constitutional violations by the State of 
Missouri and then consider the nature of the remedy that may be 
employed in such circumstances.

I.

Even though this case has been before this Court on four 
earlier occasions, the nature of the constitutional violation by 
the State of Missouri has been outlined only most generally. In 
our most recent opinion, Liddell v. Board of Education of City_of 
St. Louis, 677 F.2d 626 (8th Cir. 1982) (Liddell _V) r certLi- 
denied, ____ U.S. ____, 103 S. Ct. 172 (1983), the panel, speak­
ing through Judge Heaney stated:

We held in Adams that the state had substantially 
contributed to the segregation of the public 
schools of the City of St. Louis. No appeal was 
taken from that decision by the state. That 
decision has been settled and will not be 
reopened.

73



677 F.2d .t 629. The Court there referred t0 *h* , \ „ T 2 A  64
,.^■1 v  Board ̂ f_Educat1on of City of St^oul*. ,02 , i m  
(8th Cir.) (Liddell H i ), cert, denied. 451 O.S.
.here the panel, again speaking through Judge Heaney-state .

The State of Missouri v ig o ro u s ly  contends that
it should have no part in paying for the costs ot 
integration because its actions did not violate 
the Constitution. . . .

This contention is wholly without »erit. In 
X  causal rel?A"onTh (p^be t^n'the*^ti£°2?‘the

t ^ r « i ysd ofeCtthde *deseg r eg a t i on°Uplan ° i S T  g
'  r ir W s s  s « ^ * d a w & £ a 5fir
cielrar ^  al o ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ V h e T t V t ' e 8. Vnd^he
Itnatr"hal chosen8 not Jo seekdecision in the Supreme Court, Atthe very leas ,
our opinion left thr a.strict “ ‘j ' i , '  its its earlier conclusions. We will not
decision to do so.

667 F.2d at 654.

These opinions referred to the earlier en banc decision in
....... united States. 620 F.2d 1277 (8th Cir.). cert, denied.
449 U.S. 826 (1980). In Adams, the Court held that the diBtric 
court had erroneously concluded that the Board of Education * 
discharged its duty to desegregate the St. Louis «**»! 
adopting a neighborhood school plan and re 9
discriminatory actions thereafter and that factors over.h.ch the 
Board of Education had no control .ere responsl 
segregation in the St. Louis school system, ^dams. «20 E.2 
1291 The Court observed that most schools in north S .
.ere' black in 1954 and remained black and that most > "
south St. Louis -ere .Kite in 1954 and remained -hit.. The

74



had not dealt with the problem in 1954 to 1956 by developing a 
plan that would integrate the schools in north and south St. 
Louis. The Court concluded: "We have no alternative but to
require a system-wide remedy for what is clearly a system-wide 
violation." Id. Liddell III & V refer to the discussion on 
pages 1294 and 1295 in Adams, and footnotes 27 and 28. Testimony 
of Dr. Or field that an interdistr ict remedy funded by the State 
of Missouri would have the best chance of permanently integrating 
the schools in metropolitan St. Louis was discussed, together 
with the pre-Brown practices of both the St. Louis suburban 
school districts and those of the City of St. Louis to maintain 
segregated schools. The costs of the desegregation plan were to 
be apportioned among the defendants as determined by the district
court.

It is evident that this discussion in Adams is dealing with 
the St. Louis City school system. The Board was directed to 
develop a system-wide plan for integrating the elementary and 
secondary schools. The Court remanded "to the district court 
with instructions to take those steps necessary to bring about an 
integrated school system" in accordance with certain guidelines 
and timetables set out. Adams, 620 F.2d at 1295. Cooperative
transfers with suburban districts in St. Louis County were 
d i scussed.

This discussion in Adams does not address the question of 
interdistrict violation or interdistrict remedy.

This conclusion is fortified by the suggestion in Liddell_V 
that "the interdistrict liability proceedings previously severed 
from the remainder of the case be postponed until after . . .  an 
order in the pending 12(c) proceeding" and that "the inter­
district liability aspect should then proceed promptly there­
after." 677 F.2d at 642. The district court and this Court have 
not to this time made findings or conclusions of interdistrict
violation.

75



Liddell V made the following reference with respect to the 
State defendants:

IT)hey ere prleery ^ e " ? ^'.cttoSi
therefore, can ê J Lsegregation of the city
which will * «  V'\rh.th*uons required will occur *rhno 1 s even if the actio q „i(.u schoolschools eve outside the 
distr ict.

boundar ies of the city

677 F.2d at 630.
The decision discussed the voluntary participation of^suhur-

r»rr^i.«icr^ir.ti- "H u y.»- —
schools. 671 F.2d at 641.

, V the district court commenced its prep-Following Liddell v_> tne u.fore the
a: at ion for trial of the interdistrict ssues■ ^ “"tion 
trial could proceed and fading* on th i _  ^  the
,na ^  1 "  ^participating. From this
: : ; ; i r r : ^ t n c i u s i o n  *.*

^ r \ r r : z : r : :  :: «-
; T s  in the c " y of St. Louis and particularly to ^segregate schools in the Cr » including the predominantly

Tite5 srhodr in noth St. Louis and the predominantly black
schools in north St. Louis.

II.

The scope of remedy available once a constitutional viola­

tion has fOUn  ̂ he*n9tlb*tn ^ U” .edribtv Board of Education
supreme ?  ™  o  s424, 49 L.Ed.2d 599 (1976), in which theV. spangle_r_» 427 U.S.
Court speaking through Justice Rehnquist statedc

-  76



[I] n Swann the Court ®*^ti5>r*^ts«hâ ey0na which a recognized that there .re ^ ^ i s ^ n t l e  a dual 
court may not go in seeki g ^  L>Ed#2d 5 5 4 , 91 S 
school system. !*•' •* ‘ A part tied to the Ct 1267. These limits at® 8£hool authorities 
necessity of eSta^ ® £  9caused unconstitutional 
have in some n'ann®r .. a constitutionalsegregation, for 1*1 basis for judiciallyviolation there would be no * 3a racialordering assignment of student 
basis." Ibid.

427 O.S. at 4 3 4 The t ^  showing that the poet-
ssiae, the Court finding that the ^  ,chools was ciUsed
1971 changes in,the racia ^  ^  defendants, pointing to

o£ Tasadena.s residential patterns.

427 U.S. 435-36.

The principles ^ M I K  (»7«>. The
S t S  the5 - e t  decision in
418 717 ,1,74) < M «  ^ f l r a l  courts to re­
limitation on the reme P ^  ,tate government, and
structure the opera ion ■ d only on the basis of
explained that that power ™  at 293, 47
constitutional violation. Hills, s^L_,
L.Ed.2d at 801. The Court stated tha

[o] nee a constitutional taVlor "the scope of
federal court is‘ re*ux.reda°ure and extent of the the remedy" to fit the  ̂ t^ MiUiken# there was
constitutional vlolati.°. ’tional action on the part no finding of unconstitutiona fficials and no
S U ? t ,r . t i « S ‘ the^iolaaons commit^^ n  the

significant^ S S ^  ^  ̂  (Citations omitted.)

77



425 U.S. at 293-94.
. un liken I in detail as we

"  “ “ “
I are as follows:

j __i \oie consistently
The contr° K1\IJ?inasPis that the scope of the 

expounded in our .holdl£g s nature and extent of

su?- js g
^rlSrifc^ssrgHremedy, it must nrst within one district
a constitutional segregative effect in
that produces a Big5iirifically» it ®uSt be shown another district. Specifically he state orthat racially discriminatory acts ^ g.ngle g x
local school dlS>li:A1nctS; substantial cause of district have teein ThuS ftn interdistrict
interdistrict ^  iJ ^der where the racially remedy might be in or BOre school
discriminatory ®ctSial segregation in an ad3a£®^ districts caused racial « e g w  lines have been
district, or where the basis of race. Irl.SUŵ  deliberately drawn or‘ rict remedy would becircumstances an ttt interdistr ict
appropriate to _d by the constitutional
segregation directly without an interdistrict
violation. Conversely .^t^fEelt, there U  no
violation and lnt« d callin tor an Interdistrict constitutional wrong c a m  g
remedy.

418 U.S. at 744-45.
--_a.lv in r.pneral Building. 

The Supreme Court more 0 s> ____ , _____, 102
Cont£actors__Ass^n_jL:— judicial remedial powers

.*b. exercised only on the basis of • 
Of the federal court can  ̂ extend no farther than
violation of the law an • * of . . . [the] violation." 
required by the nature and exten

-  78



From this discussion it is apparent that the issue before 
this Court is what measures are tailored to fit the scope and 
nature of the State’s constitutional violation. As we have aeen, 
that constitutional violation is at most intradistrict in nature 
and, specifically, the failure to take measures to desegregate 
the St. Louis school system, particularly the north and south 
sides of that system. There is no hint of a finding that there 
was an interdistrict effect flowing from this intradistrict vio­
lation .

Under these principles the intradistrict violations found 
are insufficient to require the interdistrict remedy agreed to by 
all of the parties except the State of Missouri, and to Impose
the cost of this remedy on the State of Missouri. Because there
are no findings by the district court as to the extent of the
remedy required, this Court should not give its approval to a
settlement placing substantial funding responsibility on the 
State of Missouri.

The Supreme Court in Bills concluded that selection of sites 
for public housing in the City of Chicago by HUD justified a 
remedy beyond the City of Chicago's territorial boundaries. The 
reasons for the conclusion were discussed as follows:

Here the wrong committed by HUDeon fined the
respondents to segregated public . th
relevant geographic area for purposes o *jj*
respondents' housing options is ‘h« Chi=?f° housing market, not the Chicago city limiK? An order against HUD and cha
regulating* ’their conduct in themetropolitan area will do no more than take into 
account HUD’s expert determination 
relevant to the respondents’ housing opportuniti 
and will thus be wholly commensurate with the
•nature and extent of the constitutional vio­
lation." (citation omitted.)

425 U.S. at 299-300.

79



BtU3 does not justify the conclusion reeched by this 
Court. In Hills HUD hed made sn expert determination that the 
Chicago area and not simply the City of Chicago -as the relevant 
area. The wrongful act of HUD was confining the respondents to 
segregated public housing. We have no record in this case that 
the State of Missouri confined black students to the City of St. 
Louis as opposed to the county nor that the State had conceded 
the city and county to be the relevant area in issue. We have no 
finding that any of the intradistrict violations of the State 
which occurred within the City of St. Louis had any relationship 
to the county, or conversely that any acts of the State that may 
have been of an interdistrict nature affected the City. In Hills 
the particular facts pointed to the nature of the constitutional 
violation and a remedy in the larger area. HUls cannot support 
the interdistrict remedy approved by the Court today. The dis­
trict court has made no findings in a vein similar to Hills and 
the Court in its opinion has reached no conclusions similar to 
those in Hills except the unsupported assertion that Hills justi-
fies the remedy.

III.

The Court today bases its approval of the interdistrict 
transfers on the questionable ground that this issue has been 
previously decided. The Court's earlier decisions, in which we 
have discussed the nature of the constitutional violation, do not
support its conclusion.

Liddell III, supra, 667 F.2d 643, dealt with the earlier 
order of the district court relating to a voluntary cooperative 
plan of pupil exchanges between the city and county (12(a)), a 
merger and full desegregation of the separate vocational educa­
tional programs in the county and city (12(b)), and development 
and submission of *a suggested plan of interdistrlct .sc oo 
desegregation necessary to eradicate the remaining vestiges of 
government-imposed school segregation in the City of St. ouis

-  80



and St. Louis County.- *67 F.2d .t 650-51. The Court, with 
respect to para9r.ph 12(e). specifically states. Mblec.use the 
plan is to be voluntary, no question is raised about whether the 
district court will be able to enforce the plan once it is drawn 
up.- 667 F. 2d at 651. Paragraph 12(b), relating to vocational 
education, was based upon a specific finding of the district 
court that a separate special district for vocational education 
was part of the State's failure to take affirmative steps o 
eradicate the dual system it had formally mandated, and was 
designed to remedy this violation.

Paragraph 12(c) in Liddell III relates to a suggested feasi­
bility study and goes no farther. It recognised that to the
extent that segregation was imposed by county school districts, 
not parties to the lawsuit and not designated as constitutional 
violators, it could not be considered as government-imposed. To 
the extent of any segregation imposed by the State or other 
defendants -and to the extent those defendants have the power to 
remedy the violation, it is proper for the district court to
order them to take steps to do so.- 667 P.2d at 651 The 
court's opinion, however, cited no finding and made no conclusion 
that city-county interdistrict segregation was imposed by the 
State or the City Board. Later in the opinion, the Court speci-
fically referred to the apportionment of costs in Adams. ----- e—
in, 667 F. 2d at 654. In discussing apportionment of costs, the
Court mentioned specifically the segregation existing ’in the St. 
Louis school system.- These statements but reinforce the Courts 
reliance on the intradistrict violation as the basis forits 
action. The Court today gives an overly broad reading of Liddell
III .

in Liddell V , 677 F.2d 626, the Court recognised that Adams 
held that the State had contributed to the segregation -of the 
public schools of the City of St. Louis.- Citing Hills, JHEIi, 
it then concluded that paragraph 12(a) relating to voluntary 
interdistrict transfers is entirely enforceable against the State

-  8 1



defendant and that the State can be required to take actions that 
will further the desegregation of the city schools, even if the 
actions required will occur outside ..the boundaries of the city 
school district. As we have seen, the Court in Liddell III fc V 
did not attempt to identify a type of constitutional violation 
similar to that in Hills, in which actions had confined a certain 
group of persons to one portion of the area in question, or to 
demonstrate a finding, concession or conclusion that the city- 
county area should be considered as one. The Court was consider­
ing only "a modest beginning toward voluntary interdistrict 
desegregation." The Court concluded in Liddell V that the State 
and the city school board must take action to eradicate the 
remaining vestiges of government-imposed school segregation in 
the city schools. The Court's references to "actions which may 
involve the voluntary participation of the suburban schools" and, 
specifically, to "requir[ing] the state to provide additional 
incentives for voluntary interdistrict transfer," 677 F.2d at 
641-42, were given by way of example only. The tentative
suggestion that the State provide "additional incentives" is far 
from a conclusion that the State be required to fund a voluntary 
interdistrict transfer plan in which it was not a consenting 
party. These suggestions were made with reference to the 12(c) 
hearings which it suggested go forward, and which specifically 
related to development of a feasibility plan for overall inte­
gration. The interdistrict liability proceedings were to await 
this development. 677 F.2d at 642. The Court today has engaged 
in a massive bootstrapping effort to find that Liddell III or 
Liddell V has established the liability of the State for the 
interdistrict transfer plan.

The Court declares that we are bound by our previous hold­
ings as to interdistrict transfers. The law of the case 
doctrine, however, applies with less force to prior decisions of 
a panel. Van Gemmert v. Boeing Co., 590 F.2d 433, 436-37 n.9 (2d 
Cir. 1978); aff'd. 444 U.S. 472 (1980); 18 C. Wright, A. Miller &
E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure S 4478 at 796-97.

82



Resting as it does on the precarious comparison with Hills, even 
if the issue were firmly established by Liddell V, the Court en 
banc should attempt to decide the case correctly rather than 
consistently. See Robbins, et al v. Prosser’s Moving t Storafle 
Co,, 700 F.2d 433, 438 (8th Cir. 1983); Pnited States v. Unger, 
700 F. 2d 445, 450 n.10 (8th Cir. 1983); Wrist-Rocket 
Manufacturing Co. v. Saunders Archery Co^, 578 F.2d 727, 730 (8th 
Cir. 1978).

IV.

The State was ordered to match funds raised in a bond issue 
submitted to the voters by the City Board for capital improve­
ments. The issue failed and this Court’s order rather hastily 
approves the summary treatment of the district court with respect
to this issue.

The laws of Missouri place the responsibility for main­
tenance of the schools’ physical plant on the City Board of 
Education. Mo. Rev. Stat. S 177.031 (1984). This Court in its 
opinion correctly describes the age, deterioration and deferred 
maintenance of the plant. In twenty-four years thirteen bond
issues have been defeated and one in 1962 approved only after
resubmission. The last two bond issues were approved by a simple 
majority but the constitutional requirement of two-thirds voter 
approval has blocked passage of these issues.

There is no finding in the district court order and no
conclusion by this Court that the condition of the physical plant 
of the St. Louis schools is related in any way to the 
constitutional violations of either the City Board or the
State. There is nothing to suggest that the condition is other 
than purely and simply the result of the neglect of the City 
Board to fulfill its responsibilities. To order the State to pay 
half of this expense is to require a remedy beyond the 
constitutional wrong that has been found, which violates the

-  83



abolished, but specifically left the manner of levy and the 
amount and the mean, of collection to procedures under state law 
and standards. See also Plaquemines Parish School Board 
nnited States. 415 F.2d 817 (Sth Cir. 1869). 0“' *“ “ er
decision in nnited States v. Missouri. 515 F.2d 13*5 (8th r. 
1975), cert, denied sub, nom. Ferguson Keorqanl.ed School 
ni.trict v. nnited States. 423 H.S. 951, 96 S.Ct. 374, 46 L.Ed.2d 
288 (1975), simply permitted the tax levy to be established at
the highest rate approved by voters in the largest district.

I have no quarrel with the proposition that, with proper 
findings that particular programs are necessary to remedy a con­
stitutional violation that has been found to exist, a district 
court has the power to order the funding of those programs. The 
order should simply be in the form, however, to mandate that 
certain programs be carried out, and legislative bodies should be 
left with the responsibility for structuring the local or state 
taxing instrumentalities to achieve the result required. The 
federal courts go too far in mandating specific taxing pro­
cedures. I thus agree with the Court today only insofar as it 
mentions the option of the district court to simply enter a Judg­
ment against the State, as tortfeasor, for the amount required to 
fund those programs necessary to remedy the constitutional vio a-
tion.

VI.

The disagreement expressed with respect to the Court's opin­
ion today is specifically limited to those areas set forth 
above. The programs required by the settlement plan within t e 
city' school district, and particularly within the all-black 
schools, to provide a quality education for those students 
deprived of proper educational opportunities by the segregative 
actions of defendants, and the enhancement and enrichment pro­
grams are fully Justified by this Court's earlier findings of 
intradistrict violation. The magnet school, and integrative

-  85 -

i



programs within the City of St. Louis are similarly geared to the 
particular violations that were found to have occult'd. u ,
the opinion of the Court in III. IV (A) and (B) approved programs 
that are justified hy the record before the dUttiot court and 
this Court, and I join the Court in these portion, of its 
opinion. The ruling on other issues in VII (A), (B) snd (C) are 
properly reached.

The settlement plan is an inspired and far reaching one. I 
express my disagreement today only insofar as the State s 
required to fund a portion of this program that has been the 
subject of agreement by other parties and not the State, where 
there are no findings that those portions of the program are 
necessary to remedy the intradistrict constitutional violation 
that has been found. Even if the Court were to hold today in 
accordance with my views I believe that a settlement would never­
theless be achieved. The county school districts profit
immeasurably by the settlement agreement, as near y a 
funding obligation is placed upon the State and they are relieved 
of the risk of being found to have in any way contributed to a y 
interdistrict segregation. The State has further incentive to 
reach settlement as to these issues, and properly should be 
allowed to have a voice in the extent of the programs to be 
funded, because such a great portion of the expenses must be
borne by the State.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge, dissenting.

I join in Judge John R. Gibson's well-reasoned dissent con­
cerning the lack of findings to support the interdistrict aspects 
of the remedy, the lack of findings to support the t«qvirem.nt 
that the State provide funding for capital Improvements in the 
S . i - 1  Plant Of the City schools, and the singular 
prlateness in our Constitutional system of a ~
ordering state and local taxing authorities to impose specif 
tax increases. His opinion adequately reflects my dlsagreeme

-  86



with the decision of the Court in . 1 1  three of those . r e . . .  I 
cannot agree, however, t h .t  the remaining i n t r . d l . t r i c t  . .p e c ts  

of the remedy .pproved by the Court .r e  j u s t i f i e d  by adequate 

findings, and for that reason I dissent separately.

The issue in this case is not whether quality education is a 
good thing, or whether it would be wise public policy for the 
State to dedicate more of its resources to the public schoo s. 
instead, the issue is whether, on the present record, we have the 
Constitutional authority to compel the State to provide funding 
for the array of costly programs required by the settlemen
plan. I submit that we do not.

The costs of carrying out the plan that the Court today 
approves will be enormous. For the 1984-85 year alone the
State's share of these costs is likely to exceed 849,000.000, 
with the City school board contributing additional funds o 
approximately $15,000,000. These costs, and particularly the 
State's share, -ill increase very substantially in future years 
as the pace of implementation quickens. If these costs are 
necessary to remedy a Constitutional violation, then they must be 
borne by the responsible parties-and ultimately by the citixens 
of the State-no matter how financially painful compliance may 
be But if these costs go beyond what is needed to right a 
constitutional wrong, if in fact the plan Includes 
amenities that may be laudable from an educational st.ndpoin,t 
are not tailored to the incremental segregative effects that ha 
been caused by the Constitutional violation, then the effect of 
the Court's decision is to transfer, without any basis in law or 
the Constitution, funds from taxpayers or other compe ing 
programs (including other needy school districts, to the bene­
ficiaries of this plan. Our problem as a reviewing cour 3 
. the record gives us no ba.i. for an intelligent and Principle* 
determination of the critical question in this case. on 
' side of the line— Constitutional necessity or judicial excur.Un 
into policy-making and educational exper imentatlon-do

-  87 -



various components of the plan approved by the district court 
fall?1

We do not have before us a desegregation plan fashioned by 
the district court after careful findings of fact of the in 
required by the Supreme Court in Dayton Bd. of Bduc. v. Br ntgan. 
4 3 3 - o . s .  406 ,  417, 420 ( 1 9 7 7 ) .  Rather, what we have before us 
is a desegregation plan fashioned by agreement of the City ec 0 0  

board, the suburban school boards, and the plaintiffs. T 
State, which must bear the brunt of the costs, is not a 
the agreement. Over the objections of the State, the 
court has adopted the agreement or plan, end it has done . 0  with­
out inquiring into the continuing effects of the Constitutional 
violation and the need for the various programs included in 
plan to remedy those continuing effects.

1*  few examples will serve to “ A ^ n V  o^ doUafs^for such 
plan approved by the Court inc 1“J3e_d '‘kindergartens, schools of 
things as p m a g n e t ’ schools) , parental emphasis (which are in ad<iitio ^  magnet school component,
involvement, and Saturday c *. over $ 2 2 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0  during the
as presently structured, wi ^ 1084-85 alone, the plan would
plan’s first two years. D u r <3eSi<fnatea -Coordination of provide $ 1 , 7 6 2 , 0 0 0  for « item * * £ * * “ •* lt was even
Instruction”— whatever *hat *fy aade the subject of fact-mentioned, much less dl*^us ducted by the district court, and finding, during the hea“   ̂ , the plan's specific items,the same is true °f virtually -curriculum Development,"Substantial funding ls - -^le model experiences,"-Peer Tutoring," "Shared Motivat °„ *>le wog unit>.
and "Strengthen the capabilitieis o putports to "ensure
The capital improvements section < and supports the in- a learning environment which cop ootimizes the learning
structional program in a manner jfJLCA 0?? 5ho drafted the plan 
process." While the P ^ * /  that wayweshou?d not be forgiven 
may be forgiven for siting that y» without first insisting 
if we allow this .pi?n A  ?he 1 manner the Constitution requires.
Because^ •*? of ^ X t U ^ l y ^ t a b ^  w ^ f - C f SM ^ f t U i V e ^ . d e d  to ̂ remedy tbe
Constitutional violation.

88



In considering the proposed plan. the district « Urt «r.ly 
. ... . h.arinq to determine whether the proposed settlement

M a n " U  £*ir‘ reasonable. snd edegu.te for the resolution of th*
?„*> interdistrict _phaset of this school

the district court*s ingulr, ~
- e  then the inquiry 'sction'should be
to determine whether e •« on the mterdistrict

setisfectory in terms of the Pule ll consideretions se ^ r ^  ^
Rni^p of Pancakes, 513 r.iQ '

SZ2U3- ' - ™  1 HOU s" 7 ^ - ^ 7 ,  end in Professor Moore's dis- rprt. denied, 423 U.s. ot>t \ i onrjn
- —  nf~  le 23, 38 Moore's Federal Practice 1 23.8014] at
23-521 through1 23-524, and giving a few obligatory bows to the
Constitution^ in language wholly conclusory.^e
approved the plan and ordered all signs ^ 567
State defendants, to comply with all 
F. Supp. at 1042, 1055.

The district court's approach and its 
inadequate to provide that this Court
order and the itutional violation that has been found
today r ? : r tc - s : r  d and the state2 would justify
against the City u n ltarv school system within the City
requiring them to crest* a uni y judicially-compelled
school district, b\ \ l \ T .  L *^existed even if d.
creation of a sys e , . the city schools.

segregation never had been ^ h e  reme'dy J  a school
As the Supreme Court has made clear,

2As Part I. of Judge uJrehnofR the * Constit u UonaV % io?ation demonstrates, the exact nature of c deter»ined. I agree,
previously found in this . t the violation found on the parthowever, with his concision that the # u  failure to take
adequate *Vteps #to°deseg^egate* the schools throughout the City.

89



desegregation ««Jhoald^re.tore^.  ̂  ^  ocoupled m  the

ej v̂  -
280 (1977) ( C i t a t i o n  o m i t t e d )  a u t  „ d the

D a y  t o n . J B U '  t h « S u p t e "' .  t h . t ‘ . S e the C o u r t  w a s  d e . 1 -
l i m i t s  of o u r  a u t h o r ity--P a m .  5 i t u a t i o n  w h e r e  O e  j u g .
l n g , as we c e a s e d  . a n y  y e a r s  ago.

; r i : : n nh e ° C o u r t ,  c o n s t i t u t i o n a l  v i o l a t i o n s  a r e  f o u n d ,  t h e n

„ . (r, the f i r s t  i n s t a n c e ,[T]he D i s t r i c t  C o u r  C o u r t of A p p e a l s ,  roust
s u b j e c t  to r e v i e w  by t h e  ^ “ " s e g r e g a t i v e  e f f e c t  
d e t e r m i n e  h o w  rouch inc r a c ia i d i s t r i b u t i o n  of
t h e s e  v i o l a t i o n s  h a d  o n  U » w »  M  p r e s e n t l y  
the D a y t o n  s c h o o l  F » P  i b u t i o n  is c o m p a r e d  to
constituted, w h e n  h<apn <n the a b s e n c e  of s u c h  
what it w o u l d  have\ . T h e  r e m e d y  m u s t  be
c o n s t i t u t i o n a l  vi . . ’d i f f e r e n c e ,  a n d  o n l y  if
t h e  J r  h t s t0b e e n d r s y  s t r i d e  i m p a c t  m a y  t h e r e  be a 
s y s t e m w i d e  remedy.

W e  r e a l i z e  t h a t  ,t h i s  * V e V i e w i n g  'court to 
t h a t  it is rouch e a S i e r  f ° r 8 u c h  as ' c u m u l a t i v e  
f a u l t  a m b i g u o u s  phr<*se t®he f i n d e r of fact to
v i o l a t i o n 1 t h a n  1 _ ^ d e t e r m i n a t i o n s  in the
m a k e  the c o m p l e x  * a^ a . t h a t  is w h a t  the
f i r s t  i n s t a n c e .  " o n ' ^ ' s  c a ll for, a n d  t h a t  is 
C o n s t i t u t i o n  an d  ou r  c a s e s  c 
w h a t  roust be d o n e  in t h i s  c a se.

i n  n at 420 (citation omitted).D a y t o n , 433 U.S. ar \

in the c a s e  n o w  before us, t h e "  ̂  o' *  the
d e t e r m i n e  the incremental th e  defendants or to c o m -
Constitutional v i o l a t i o n  c o m m  to what ft w o u l d  h a v e
pare the present C i t y  8 c h o ° *  P ° P  b e e n  ^  tailoring of the
been absent a violation. » « •  * “ . t e £ t r r e d  to  in Dayton or
order to redress o n l y  ‘that ^  t h e  p o s i t i o n  t h e y

to r e s t o r e  s t u d e n t s  in o £  B u c h  c o n d u c t *  as r e q u i r e d
w o u l d  h a v e  o c c u p i e d  in t h e  a b

by Millikan II•

-  90



\The district court's failure to conduct a Dayton-type in­
quiry and to make findings on incremental segregative effects has 
rendered it impossible for this Court properly to review the 
district court's order. This failure has left us without any 
measuring stick by which we can assess the various components of 
the settlement plan. The opinion of the Court implicitly recog­
nizes this difficulty when, in searching for some standard to 
guide its review of certain of the compensatory and remedial 
programs approved by the district court, the Court resorts to a 
school classification device— Class AAA status— developed by the 
State's Department of Education as a means of rating schools, and 
approves programs necessary to permit the City schools to regain 
and retain their Class AAA status. Although the Court's need to 
find a standard to which it can repair is understandable, I do 
not believe that the approach taken is sound. There has been no 
showing of any kind that in the absence of the defendants' 
Constitutional violation the City schools would have maintained 
Class AAA status. Thousands of Missouri school children, over 
one—quarter of the total number, attend schools that lack Class 
AAA status. That fact alone, when coupled with the recent resto­
ration of the City schools to Class AAA status, casts consider­
able doubt on the proposition that any educational problems that 
may exist within the City schools are of unusual severity or that 
they rise to a level of Constitutional concern. In any event, we 
cannot simply make assumptions about the continuing harms that 
have flowed from the violation; rather, these harms must be 
determined by the kind of fact-finding by the district court and 
review by this Court that Dayton mandates.

The process by which the settlement plan came into being 
underscores the need for careful fact-finding before imposing the 
plan and its burdensome costs upon the State. In the first 
place, it would be a most remarkable coincidence if a plan in­
tended to settle the broad interdistrict claims in this case was 
at the same time properly tailored to cure only the effects of 
the intradistrict violation. Moreover, it must be remembered

*

-  91 -



that the negotiations «
State, at leest *'“ £ *  ‘ 'hat it could not agree to a plan of 
become apparent “  *h« ‘“ “ J  ^  ^  detetBinea to
the scope and cost t ^  conditioned upon compulsory
achieve. The P a > u  the participating school dis-
funding from the State, benefits None of them had any
tacts stood t o “ -cm ^
real incentive to pre benefit their school
high with programs and funds that ̂ woul ^  ^  ^
systems. As might be expe » attempt to measure the
parties to the on which the
incremental segrega 1 ĥnse effects. Such negotiations
Pl-  CeStS t°; narrowly tailored to
are inherently unlike y rtr*sent-day educational defi-r r r s  =,r z  =
fact-finding, is especially cntica

3The looseness, vagueness, ^
emphasized by one of the 
district courts

in nearly every p r o g r a m ^
one can point r^t consistent with thebudget items which a . th the planning as isdescriptor certainly not with andP I would not
in the case of »any . * Stances until all thoseapprove it under any circumsta^ ^  clear what was 
points were clarified, lt cf the expenditure

er teen1tv1edlyC°:Ci- e 4
ptograms°In iWZthafJeV would’he rendered 
In poorer shape than t ey • : pederal

Testimony of Otis Baker, Coordinator t of Elementary
Programs, Division of Instruction, S t a t e ^ p ^  „eatln, p 16 9 .  
and Secondary Education* £_s’ate "expert" presented y
^ e 8 ^ u e 8 } tnea8# 40 ou

-  92 -



above I would reverie the judgment For the reasons eta tea aDove, iFor tne re* the district court
of the district court and remand the ca
for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. l 
nope, of course, that the parties could resume their negotiate 
and achieve a settlement agreement to which all could ..sen .

V

A true copy

Attest:

CLERK U. S. COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT,

proponents of the plan, ^ V ' ^ o t ^ w f t h e r ! school system in 
that to her knowledge there is n Comr>onents that are included 
the United States that has all the Vont.ln.d in the
within the quality «duc.atlon Carol Gibson, Director of
settlement plan. T.fS t Tr of Fairness Hearing, p. 1-Education, Nat io n a l Urban League Tr.c^ a rn following
195. one of the ? hPe ° X l i ty educat'on improvements portionobservation concerning the quality
of the plan:

This whole section of the proposal lTOksto

s-.of expenses they can dream up well remember
?heir°earliere|ttem|t to have geMtal^maintenance

expenses fTmp^lementtng ‘the 12(a) plan now in 
e f f ec t.

Testimony of Shannon K. S c h o o l ! * Tr ̂ o f *  Fairness%ear ing* Association for Neighborhood Schools. Tr.
p. 3-49, 50.

-  93 -

Copyright notice

© NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.


Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Return to top