McGee v. City of Meridian, Mississippi Joint Supplemental Brief for Appellants

    FOR _ IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

June 13, 1973 

Judges Affirm Get-the-Lard-Out Policy 

HEW DROPS ANOTHER ROUND TO LEGAL DEFENSE FUND 
AS D.C. APPEALS COURT UNANIMOUSLY ORDERS 
AGENCY TO OBEY CIVIL RIGHTS LAW BY WITH- 

HOLDING FEDERAL FUNDS FROM SCHOOL DISTRICTS 
PRACTICING SEGREGATION 

"A political determination not to proceed with 

school desegregation has been resoundingly overruled by the 

courts." Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel of the NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund, so characterized an 8-0 decision late 

yesterday afternoon (June 12) by the District of Columbia 

Circuit Court of Appeals upholding strct guidelines for the 

Department of Health, Education and Welfare to observe in 

implementing school desegregation. 

The suit was begun in 1969, after HEW's own inter- 

nal determination showed that school desegregation was being 

tacitly approved through the agency's inaction. State and 

individual districts failing to submit desegregation plans, 

and those that submitted but ignored their own plans, were 

being encouraged to do so by HEW's failure to obey its own 

mandate. Funds that should have been withdrawn in the ab- 

sence of compliance continued to flow to states, districts, 

and schools that practiced discrimination. 

Deadlines of 60 and 120 days were the stiff require- 

ments of a February 16, 1973, order by a federal district 

judge in the District of Columbia. States and districts which 

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 19019 | (212) 586-8397 

William T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greer i rg - Director-Counsel 



which had not come forth with acceptable plans within that 

time would face administrative hearings and withholding by 

HEW of federal education aid, under the court order. 

HEW appealed, claiming that its (and the states') 

compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a matter for 

agency discretion. Yesterday's decision, following a 

hearing by the full Court of Appeals, dismissed the discre- 

tion argument in an unsigned per curiam order expressing 

the views of all eight judges who heard the case. In only 

two respects, a slight lengthening of the timetable for 

compliance in the field of higher education,was the lower 

court order modified. 

"Enforcing the principles won in civil rights 

cases can be done in essentially three ways," Greenberg ex- 

plained. "First, by private lawsuits, such as those brought 

by the Legal Defense Fund. Second, by lawsuits brought by 

the Department of Justice. Third, through administrative 

action by HEW. Despite the law, HEW had not been doing any- 

thing to further desegregation. 

"I believe, hopefully, that the pace of school 

desegregation will begin to pick up," Greenberg concluded. 

= aOke 

For further information contact: Frederick Koyle 
Acting Director 
Office of Public Information 
NAACP Legal Defense Fund 
10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
[212] 586-8397 x 303