The Justice Department says it ended more than 50 long-standing consent decrees in school desegregation cases, ending federal oversight. It is reviewing cases from the 1960s and ’70s; some dismissal requests still await a federal judge’s ruling.
Some consent decrees required districts to change student assignments or other policies. The department says it will seek dismissal of pending cases after a case-by-case review finds a district has achieved “unitary status”—meaning it has eliminated vestiges of Jim Crow-era segregation.
Kristen Clarke, the Civil Rights Division’s former head and now the NAACP’s general counsel, warned the actions threaten to fuel resegregation and said the decrees protect children facing discrimination. Regan Rush of Democracy Forward said the division had abandoned decades of enforcement work.
