Memo of Law in Support of Pleading
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Case Files, Milliken Hardbacks. Memo of Law in Support of Pleading, a569f3fb-53e9-ef11-a730-7c1e5247dfc0. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/dcdc2b29-8b28-4b7b-a8ce-37e222325053/memo-of-law-in-support-of-pleading. Accessed July 16, 2025.
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION RONALD BRADLEY, et al., ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) vs. ) CIVIL ACTION ) NO. 35257 WILLIAM G. MILLIKEN, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ) MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF RESPONSIVE PLEADING BY DEFENDANTS-INTERVENORS KERRY GREEN, ET AL, The defendants-intervenors Kerry Green, et al., submit the following memorandum of law in support of their responsive pleading to the plaintiffs’ amended complaint to conform to evidence: The Supreme Court does not sit as a super-legislature to determine the wisdom, need, and propriety of laws that touch economic problems, business affairs, or social conditions. Mr. Justice Douglas delivering the opinion of the Court in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482. The child is not the mere creature of the State and the fundamental right of parents to educate their children as they choose is made applicable to the States by the force of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Pierce v . Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535; Griswold v. Connecticut, supra, at 482. School children are "persons" within the meaning of the Bill of Rights and they are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect. linker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503, 511; Mr. Justice Douglas dissenting in part in Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 243. 1 • * Neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone. In Re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 13. The makers of the Constitution conferred upon individuals, as against the Government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the Government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amend ment. Mr. Justice Brandeis dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 479. Without doubt, liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution denotes more than mere freedom from bodily restraint and includes, among other things, the right of the individual to marry, establish a home and bring up children and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness of free men. Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399. Although the Court has not assumed to define ’liberty' with any great precision, that term is not confined to mere freedom from bodily restraint. Liberty under law extends to the full range of conduct which the individual is free to pursue. Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 499. The specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbral zones of guaranteed liberties and privacies protected as much from governmental invasion as the specific guarantees. Griswold v. Connecticut, supra, 484-486. The language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those funda- 2 mental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments. The Ninth Amendment reads, nThe enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Mr. Justice Goldberg, joined by Mr. Chief Justice Warren and Mr. Justice Brennan, concurring in Griswold v, Connecticut, supra, at 488. and spend significant time each day being transported to a distant school suffers an impairment of his liberty and privacy. Mr. Justice Powell con curring in part and dissenting in part in Keyes v. School District No. 1, of Mr. Justice Powell at page 32). Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Olmstead v. United States, supra, at 479. When remedial desegregation orders extend to the transportation of students, the full burden of the affirmative remedial action is borne by children and parents who did not participate in any constitutional violation. Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado, supra, separate opinion of Mr. Justice Powell at page 34. Any child, white or black, who is compelled to leave his neighborhood Denver, Colorado, ___ U.S. ___ (slip opinion June 21, 1973, separate opinion Respectfully submitted, ROBERT J. LORD Attorney for Defendants- Intervenors Kerry Green et al. 8388 Dixie Highway Fair Haven, Michigan 48023 3