'Days of Court Oversight Are Numbered'

By Andre G. Bouchard

In lifting the desegregation order governing the public schools in Muscogee County, Ga., federal Judge J. Robert Elliott noted that he was the only person who had had a continuous connection with the case since it was filed in 1964.

Quoting Ecclesiastes that "better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof," Judge Elliott, 84 years old at the time, expressed his hope to end court-ordered desegregation in the district before he died. His sentiment reflects a national trend, as federal judges lift longstanding desegregation decrees with greater frequency.

Over the past 18 months, decrees have been lifted in cities such as Denver, Buffalo, N.Y., Dallas, Savannah, Ga., and Wilmington, Del. Many other districts are following that lead, filing petitions for "unitary" status--the legal term for the condition that a district must achieve...