WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's attempt to repeal decades-old school desegregation orders faces opposition from a federal judge in Louisiana.
After a judge refused to throw out a desegregation case dating back to the 1960s, the Concordia Parish school system in central Louisiana and the state filed an appeal Tuesday. The case represents the first major test of the government's attempt to quickly end some long-running cases.
The school system became the focus of the administration's attention. try to end the lawsuits which date back to the civil rights era. Louisiana officials say the cases are outdated and no longer needed. Remarkably, they recently received support from the US Department of Justice, which has been fighting similar cases for decades.
The campaign faced its first major hurdle this month when U.S. District Judge Dee Drell rejected a lawsuit by Louisiana and the Justice Department seeking to free Concordia from the 1965 lawsuit. The case was brought by black families who demanded access to the city's all-white schools.
Several legal claims in the case remain in effect today, and some families say the court's rulings are still needed to improve education in the area's predominantly black schools.
Louisiana and the federal government attempted to dismiss the case immediately, saying all remaining parties believed the case was no longer necessary. It was not signed by any of the families who filed the lawsuit and are no longer involved in the case.
Drell refused, saying the court could reject such agreements when there are more serious issues at stake.
“At the heart of this case is public policy and the protection of others, and the court has been directed to ensure that this matter is resolved in accordance with long-established legal precedent,” Drell, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in a Nov. 19 order.
Instead, Drell proposed that Concordia County hold a hearing to prove that it had completely eliminated state-sponsored racial segregation, the traditional way to end such cases.
The school district and state appealed the decision Tuesday. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department used the same tactic to overturn a 1966 ruling in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish School District (the judge in that case had been dead for decades), and it signaled plans to fire other judges later.
Dozens of 1960s school desegregation cases remain on the books in Louisiana and the South, including some hotly contested and others dragging on.
The Justice Department framed the decades-old cases as federal interference in local school decisions. Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the department's civil rights division, previously promised that other cases would “go down the drain.”
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