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Civil Rights And Civil Liberties, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

More than most lawsuits, school desegregation cases touch basic economic interests and deep-seated psychic sensitivities of entire communities. In this context, legal notions of the "intent" of governmental bodies and the "effect" of their actions on massive, intricate social processes seem eerily abstract. Though limited and necessarily artificial, these legal concepts are nonetheless the jurisprudential links by which courts must legitimize their efforts to define "rights" worthy of recognition in desegregating schools in large urban areas.

This article focuses primarily on this term's decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit involving desegregation of the Milwaukee …