In essence, he added, “there’s still a pretty heavy burden to meet, but, as long as school districts meet it, then the Court says, ‘We’re not go ing to keep them in the penalty box forever.”’
He described it as a victory for anti-busing forces. “I think the hole infatuation this country has had with forced busing has proved to be unproductive in most cases and counterproductive in many of the large cities,” Mr. Reynolds said.
By allowing schools to concenrate more on education, and less on transportation and other issues, the ruling “will have, over time, a very positive impact,” he said.
Amy Casner, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, which is currently involved in 470 desegre gation proceedings, said the Bush Administration is reviewing its cases in light of the Supreme Court ruling and is advising schools to ex amine theirs. The department will advise dis tricts that think their desegregation decrees should be lifted and may suggest in a given case that a court’s role end, she said. But, she added, ‘we’re not going to have an active lobbying effort” to get desegregation orders dissolved.
She also discounted claims that the Bush Administration has drasti cally altered its course from Reagan Administration policy.
“We weren’t here in the Reagan Administration,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair to compare us.”
Other lawyers observed that the decision signaled no drastic changes.
“My own opinion is that there’s nothing particularly earthshaking in this decision,” said Walter A. Smith, a lawyer for the Council of the Great City Schools. “I think we’re largely where we were before."3
David S. Tatel, a colleague of Mr. Smith’s and a civil-right official in the Carter Administration, agreed. “The decision is a very important one because it really does not dramatically change course,” he said.3
Ultimately, he added, “I think it shows how strong the principles of Brown are. Even this conservative Court wasn’t willing to depart from them.”
