Law Commons^™

Perspectives On Missouri V. Jenkins: Abandoning The Unfinished Business Of Public School Desegregation 'With All Deliberate Speed', José F. Anderson

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the continuing struggle that centers around whether this country will allow public elementary and secondary school officials to use race-conscious, and sometimes aggressive, tools to eliminate the continuing presence of predominantly single race schools in most of our urban centers. Despite the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, the efforts to desegregate schools in some areas of America appear to have eliminated only the legal barriers to truly integrated schools. Many school systems have simply resegregated through demographic shifts prompted by urban decay and "white flight." In Missouri v. Jenkins, the Supreme Court struck down certain …

The Tales Of White Folk: Doctrine, Narrative, And The Reconstruction Of Racial Reality, Robert L. Hayman, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

Black America, some people said, was dying. And they wondered what they would hear in the souls of white folk when white America heard the news.

Part of the story was told in June 1995, by the Supreme Court. The session of the Court had not been convened explicitly or exclusively to determine the fate of black America. Still, it was clearly on the agenda, with no less than three major race-related disputes on the High Court's docket.

And what the Court had to say on such matters did matter. As the highest tribunal in the land, it possessed the …

Assessing The Efficacy Of School Desegregation, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Promise Of State Constitutionalism: Can It Be Fulfilled In Shef V. O'Neill?, Gayl S. Westerman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article reflects on the anomaly of the superior court's decision in Sheff in light of this recent history and recommends that the Connecticut Supreme Court use an alternative, analytical framework based on the Connecticut Constitution to decide the Sheff appeal. This independent approach is equally available to all state courts seeking to resolve fundamental issues under their own constitutions. Only by speaking in a clear, state voice can state courts balance the constitutional vision of the federal courts and fulfill the promise of the state constitutional law movement.