Court Sides With Conn. in Latest Sheff Ruling

By Jeff Archer

A decade after they first filed Connecticut's closely watched school desegregation lawsuit, the plaintiffs in the case known as Sheff v. O'Neill have been told to give it more time.

In a decision that offered them few concessions, state Superior Court Judge Julia L. Aurigemma last week ruled that the Sheff plaintiffs had failed to show the inadequacy of state efforts to reduce the racial and ethnic isolation that persists around its cities' schools.

Instead, the trial court judge said, state officials acted quickly and prudently after the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1996 ordered the governor and legislature to "put the search for appropriate remedial measures at the top...