Supreme Court Lets Desegregation Plan Stand

By Mark Walsh and Joetta L.Sack

Washington

The U.S. Supreme Court last week turned aside an appeal from the state of Missouri seeking an end to a state-financed desegregation plan in St. Louis.

The high court on March 2 declined without comment to review the strongly worded appeal written by Missouri Attorney General Jeremiah W. Nixon, who has aggressively sought to rein in the expensive desegregation programs the state has paid for in St. Louis and Kansas City.

The appeal in Missouri v. Lidell (Case No. 97-888) concerned an interdistrict-transfer program that sends some 13,000 inner-city black students into suburban schools and 1,500 white students into the city at state expense. The state says the program costs more than...