A group of parents has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider their challenge to a school assignment plan that uses race to improve diversity in the Lynn, Mass., public schools.
The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in December, leaving in effect a plan that considers racial balance as the second factor in assigning students to schools.
But in June, the justices accepted for review appeals of two other cases involving public school assignment plans, in Jefferson County, Ky., and Seattle. Arguments in those cases will likely be heard together this fall. (“High Court to Consider Use of Race,” June 14, 2006.)
Michael Williams, the Boston lawyer representing the parents, said reopening the Lynn case would ensure that, if the high court rejects the two other plans, the parents would not have to return to a lower court to apply those decisions to the 14,200-student Massachusetts district.
