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  • What Would Thurgood Marshall Do?

    “Whatever the severity of the impact of insufficient food or inadequate housing on a

    person’s life, they have never been considered to bear the same direct and immediate relationship to

    constitutional concerns for free speech and for our political processes as education has long been

    recognized to bear. Perhaps, the best evidence of this fact is the unique status which has been

    accorded public education as the single public service nearly unanimously guaranteed in the

    constitutions of our States.”

    –Justice Thurgood Marshall, dissenting in the federal

    “Edgewood” case (Rodriguez, 1973).

    Failure to win this crucial civil rights battle in

    federal court sent strategists back to the state constitution of Texas.

    As Marshall

    hinted in the final footnote of his dissent: “Of course, nothing in the Court’s decision today should

    inhibit further review of state educational funding schemes under state constitutional provisions.”

    Read part one of the full dissent [through II.A.] below under “Read More.”

    U.S. Supreme

    Court
    SAN ANTONIO SCHOOL DISTRICT v. RODRIGUEZ, 411 U.S. 1 (1973)
    411 U.S. 1

    [Source: Findlaw]

    SAN ANTONIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT ET AL. v. RODRIGUEZ ET

    AL.,
    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT
    OF

    TEXAS
    No. 71-1332.

    Argued October 12, 1972
    Decided March 21,

    1973

    MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS concurs,

    dissenting.

    The Court today decides, in effect, that a State may constitutionally vary

    the quality of education which it offers its children in accordance with the amount of taxable wealth

    located in the school districts within which they reside. The majority’s decision represents an abrupt

    departure from the mainstream of recent state and federal court decisions concerning the

    unconstitutionality of state educational financing schemes dependent upon taxable local wealth. 1 More

    unfortunately, though, the [411 U.S. 1, 71] majority’s holding can only be seen as a retreat from

    our historic commitment to equality of educational opportunity and as unsupportable acquiescence in a

    system which deprives children in their earliest years of the chance to reach their full potential as

    citizens. The Court does this despite the absence of any substantial justification for a scheme which

    arbitrarily channels educational resources in accordance with the fortuity of the amount of taxable

    wealth within each district.

    In my judgment, the right of every American to an equal

    start in life, so far as the provision of a state service as important as education is concerned, is

    far too vital to permit state discrimination on grounds as tenuous as those presented by this record.

    Nor can I accept the notion that it is sufficient to remit these appellees to the vagaries of the

    political process which, contrary to the majority’s suggestion, has proved singularly unsuited to the

    task of providing a remedy for this discrimination. 2 I, for one, am unsatisfied with the hope of an

    ultimate “political” solution sometime in the indefinite future while, in the meantime, countless

    children unjustifiably receive inferior educations that “may affect their hearts [411 U.S. 1, 72]

    and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 494 (1954).

    I must therefore respectfully dissent.

    I

    The Court acknowledges that

    “substantial interdistrict disparities in school expenditures” exist in Texas, ante, at 15, and that

    these disparities are “largely attributable to differences in the amounts of money collected through

    local property taxation,” ante, at 16. But instead of closely examining the seriousness of these

    disparities and the invidiousness of the Texas financing scheme, the Court undertakes an elaborate

    exploration of the efforts Texas has purportedly made to close the gaps between its districts in terms

    of levels of district wealth and resulting educational funding. Yet, however praiseworthy Texas’

    equalizing efforts, the issue in this case is not whether Texas is doing its best to ameliorate the

    worst features of a discriminatory scheme but, rather, whether the scheme itself is in fact

    unconstitutionally discriminatory in the face of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal

    protection of the laws. When the Texas financing scheme is taken as a whole, I do not think it can be

    doubted that it produces a discriminatory impact on substantial numbers of the school-age children of

    the State of Texas.

    A

    Funds to support public education in Texas are

    derived from three sources: local ad valorem property taxes; the Federal Government; and the state

    government. 3 It is enlightening to consider these in order. [411 U.S. 1, 73]

    Under

    Texas law, the only mechanism provided the local school district for raising new, unencumbered revenues

    is the power to tax property located within its boundaries. 4 At the same time, the Texas financing

    scheme effectively restricts the use of monies raised by local property taxation to the support of

    public education within the boundaries of the district in which they are raised, since any such taxes

    must be approved by a majority of the property-taxpaying voters of the district. 5

    The

    significance of the local property tax element of the Texas financing scheme is apparent from the fact

    that it provides the funds to meet some 40% of the cost of public education for Texas as a whole. 6 Yet

    the amount of revenue that any particular Texas district can raise is dependent on two factors – its

    tax rate and its amount of taxable property. The first factor is determined by the property-taxpaying

    voters of the district. 7 But, regardless of the enthusiasm of the local voters for public [411 U.S. 1,

    74] education, the second factor – the taxable property wealth of the district – necessarily

    restricts the district’s ability to raise funds to support public education. 8 Thus, even though the

    voters of two Texas districts may be willing to make the same tax effort, the results for the districts

    will be substantially different if one is property rich while the other is property poor. The necessary

    effect of the Texas local property tax is, in short, to favor property-rich districts and to disfavor

    property-poor ones.

    The seriously disparate consequences of the Texas local property tax,

    when that tax is considered alone, are amply illustrated by data presented to the District Court by

    appellees. These data included a detailed study of a sample of 110 Texas school districts 9 for the

    1967-1968 school year conducted by Professor Joel S. Berke of Syracuse University’s Educational

    Finance Policy Institute. Among other things, this study revealed that the 10 richest districts

    examined, each of which had more than $100,000 in taxable property per pupil, raised through local

    effort an average of $610 per pupil, whereas the four poorest districts studied, each of which had less

    than $10,000 in taxable property per pupil, were able [411 U.S. 1, 75] to raise only an average of

    $63 per pupil. 10 And, as the Court effectively recognizes, ante, at 27, this correlation between the

    amount of taxable property per pupil and the amount of local revenues per pupil holds true for the 96

    districts in between the richest and poorest districts. 11

    It is clear, moreover, that

    the disparity of per-pupil revenues cannot be dismissed as the result of lack of local effort – that

    is, lower tax rates – by property-poor districts. To the contrary, the data presented below indicate

    that the poorest districts tend to have the highest tax rates and the richest districts tend to have

    the lowest tax rates. 12 Yet, despite the apparent extra effort being made by the poorest districts,

    they are unable even to begin to match the richest districts in te
    rms of the product
    ion of local

    revenues. For example, the 10 richest districts studied by Professor Berke were able to produce $585

    per pupil with an equalized tax rate of 31› [411 U.S. 1, 76] on $100 of equalized valuation, but the

    four poorest districts studied, with an equalized rate of 70› on $100 of equalized valuation, were able

    to produce only $60 per pupil. 13 Without more, this state-imposed system of educational funding

    presents a serious picture of widely varying treatment of Texas school districts, and thereby of Texas

    schoolchildren, in terms of the amount of funds available for public education.

    Nor are

    these funding variations corrected by the other aspects of the Texas financing scheme. The Federal

    Government provides funds sufficient to cover only some 10% of the total cost of public education in

    Texas. 14 Furthermore, while these federal funds are not distributed in Texas solely on a per-pupil

    basis, appellants do not here contend that they are used in such a way as to ameliorate significantly

    the widely varying consequences for Texas school districts and schoolchildren of the local property tax

    element of the state financing scheme. 15

    State funds provide the remaining some 50% of

    the monies spent on public education in Texas. 16 Technically, they are distributed under two programs.

    The first is the Available School Fund, for which provision is made in the Texas Constitution. 17 The

    Available [411 U.S. 1, 77] School Fund is composed of revenues obtained from a number of sources,

    including receipts from the state ad valorem property tax, one-fourth of all monies collected by the

    occupation tax, annual contributions by the legislature from general revenues, and the revenues derived

    from the Permanent School Fund. 18 For the 1970-1971 school year the Available School Fund contained

    $296,000,000. The Texas Constitution requires that this money be distributed annually on a per capita

    basis 19 to the local school districts. Obviously, such a flat grant could not alone eradicate the

    funding differentials attributable to the local property tax. Moreover, today the Available School Fund

    is in reality simply one facet of the second state financing program, the Minimum Foundation School

    Program, 20 since each district’s annual share of the Fund is deducted from the sum to which the

    district is entitled under the Foundation Program. 21

    The Minimum Foundation School

    Program provides funds for three specific purposes: professional salaries, current operating expenses,

    and transportation expenses. 22 The State pays, on an overall basis, for approximately 80% of the cost

    of the Program; the remaining 20% is distributed among the local school districts under the [411 U.S.

    1, 78] Local Fund Assignment. 23 Each district’s share of the Local Fund Assignment is determined by

    a complex “economic index” which is designed to allocate a larger share of the costs to property-rich

    districts than to property-poor districts. 24 Each district pays its share with revenues derived from

    local property taxation.

    The stated purpose of the Minimum Foundation School Program is

    to provide certain basic funding for each local Texas school district. 25 At the same time, the Program

    was apparently intended to improve, to some degree, the financial position of property-poor districts

    relative to property-rich districts, since – through the use of the economic index – an effort is made

    to charge a disproportionate share of the costs of the Program to rich districts. 26 It bears noting,

    however, that substantial criticism has been leveled at the practical effectiveness of the economic

    index system of local cost allocation. 27 In theory, the index is designed to ascertain the relative

    ability of each district to contribute to the Local Fund Assignment from local property taxes. Yet the

    index is not developed simply on the basis of each district’s taxable wealth. It also takes into

    account the district’s relative income from manufacturing, mining, and agriculture, its payrolls, and

    its scholastic population. 28 [411 U.S. 1, 79] It is difficult to discern precisely how these

    latter factors are predictive of a district’s relative ability to raise revenues through local

    property taxes. Thus, in 1966, one of the consultants who originally participated in the development of

    the Texas economic index adopted in 1949 told the Governor’s Committee on Public School Education:

    “The Economic Index approach to evaluating local ability offers a little better measure than sheer

    chance, but not much.” 29

    Moreover, even putting aside these criticisms of the

    economic index as a device for achieving meaningful district wealth equalization through cost

    allocation, poor districts still do not necessarily receive more state aid than property-rich

    districts. For the standards which currently determine the amount received from the Foundation School

    Program by any particular district 30 favor property-rich districts. 31 Thus, focusing on the same [411

    U.S. 1, 80] Edgewood Independent and Alamo Heights School Districts which the majority uses for

    purposes of illustration, we find that in 1967-1968 property-rich Alamo Heights, 32 which raised $333

    per pupil on an equalized tax rate of 85› per $100 valuation, received $225 per pupil from the

    Foundation School Program, while property-poor Edgewood, 33 which raised only $26 per pupil with an

    equalized tax rate of $1.05 per $100 valuation, received only $222 per pupil from the Foundation School

    Program. 34 And, more recent data, which indicate that for the 1970-1971 school year Alamo Heights

    received $491 per pupil from [411 U.S. 1, 81] the Program while Edgewood received only $356 per

    pupil, hardly suggest that the wealth gap between the districts is being narrowed by the State Program.

    To the contrary, whereas in 1967-1968 Alamo Heights received only $3 per pupil, or about 1%, more than

    Edgewood in state aid, by 1970-1971 the gap had widened to a difference of $135 per pupil, or about

    38%. 35 It was data of this character that prompted the District Court to observe that “the current

    [state aid] system tends to subsidize the rich at the expense of the poor, rather than the other way

    around.” 36 337 F. Supp. 280, 282. And even the appellants go no further here than to venture that the

    Minimum Foundation School Program has “a mildly equalizing effect.” 37

    Despite these

    facts, the majority continually emphasizes how much state aid has, in recent years, been given [411

    U.S. 1, 82] to property-poor Texas school districts. What the Court fails to emphasize is the cruel

    irony of how much more state aid is being given to property-rich Texas school districts on top of their

    already substantial local property tax revenues. 38 Under any view, then, it is apparent that the state

    aid provided by the Foundation School Program fails to compensate for the large funding variations

    attributable to the local property tax element of the Texas financing scheme. And it is these stark

    differences in the treatment of Texas school districts and school children inherent in the Texas

    financing scheme, not the absolute amount of state aid provided to any particular school district, that

    are the crux of this case. There can, moreover, be no escaping the conclusion that the local property

    tax which is dependent upon taxable district property wealth is an essential feature of the Texas

    scheme for financing public education. 39

    B

    The appellants do not deny

    the disparities in educational funding caused by variations in taxable district property wealth. They

    do contend, however, that whatever the differences in per-pupil spending among Texas districts, there

    are no discriminatory consequences for the children of the disadvantaged districts. They recognize that

    what is at stake in this case is the quality of the [411 U.S. 1, 83] public education provided Texas

    children in the districts in which they live. But appellants reject the suggestio

    n that the quality of

    education in any particular district is determined by money – beyond some minimal level of funding

    which they believe to be assured every Texas district by the Minimum Foundation School Program. In

    their view, there is simply no denial of equal educational opportunity to any Texas schoolchildren as a

    result of the widely varying per-pupil spending power provided districts under the current financing

    scheme.

    In my view, though, even an unadorned restatement of this contention is

    sufficient to reveal its absurdity. Authorities concerned with educational quality no doubt disagree as

    to the significance of variations in per-pupil spending. 40 Indeed, conflicting expert testimony was

    presented to the District Court in this case concerning the effect of spending variations on

    educational achievement. 41 We sit, however, not to resolve disputes over educational theory but to

    enforce our Constitution. It is an inescapable fact that if one district has more funds available per

    pupil than another district, the [411 U.S. 1, 84] former will have greater choice in educational

    planning than will the latter. In this regard, I believe the question of discrimination in educational

    quality must be deemed to be an objective one that looks to what the State provides its children, not

    to what the children are able to do with what they receive. That a child forced to attend an

    underfunded school with poorer physical facilities, less experienced teachers, larger classes, and a

    narrower range of courses than a school with substantially more funds – and thus with greater choice in

    educational planning – may nevertheless excel is to the credit of the child, not the State, cf.

    Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337, 349 (1938). Indeed, who can ever measure for such a

    child the opportunities lost and the talents wasted for want of a broader, more enriched education?

    Discrimination in the opportunity to learn that is afforded a child must be our

    standard.

    Hence, even before this Court recognized its duty to tear down the barriers of

    state-enforced racial segregation in public education, it acknowledged that inequality in the

    educational facilities provided to students may be discriminatory state action as contemplated by the

    Equal Protection Clause. As a basis for striking down state-enforced segregation of a law school, the

    Court in Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 633 -634 (1950), stated:

    “[W]e cannot find

    substantial equality in the educational opportunities offered white and Negro law students by the

    State. In terms of number of the faculty, variety of courses and opportunity for specialization, size

    of the student body, scope of the library, availability of law review and similar activities, the

    [whites-only] Law School is superior. . . . It is difficult to believe that one who had a free choice

    between these law schools would consider the question close.” [411 U.S. 1, 85]

    See

    also McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, 339 U.S. 637 (1950). Likewise, it is

    difficult to believe that if the children of Texas had a free choice, they would choose to be educated

    in districts with fewer resources, and hence with more antiquated plants, less experienced teachers,

    and a less diversified curriculum. In fact, if financing variations are so insignificant to educational

    quality, it is difficult to understand why a number of our country’s wealthiest school districts,

    which have no legal obligation to argue in support of the constitutionality of the Texas legislation,

    have nevertheless zealously pursued its cause before this Court. 42

    The consequences,

    in terms of objective educational input, of the variations in district funding caused by the Texas

    financing scheme are apparent from the data introduced before the District Court. For example, in 1968

    -1969, 100% of the teachers in the property-rich Alamo Heights School District had college degrees. 43

    By contrast, during the same school year only 80.02% of the teachers had college degrees in the

    property poor Edgewood Independent School District. 44 Also, in 1968-1969, approximately 47% of the

    teachers in the Edgewood District were on emergency teaching permits, whereas only 11% of the teachers

    in Alamo Heights were on such permits. 45 This is undoubtedly a reflection of the fact that the top of

    Edgewood’s teacher salary scale was [411 U.S. 1, 86] approximately 80% of Alamo Heights’. 46 And,

    not surprisingly, the teacher-student ratio varies significantly between the two districts. 47 In other

    words, as might be expected, a difference in the funds available to districts results in a difference

    in educational inputs available for a child’s public education in Texas. For constitutional purposes,

    I believe this situation, which is directly attributable to the Texas financing scheme, raises a grave

    question of state-created discrimination in the provision of public education. Cf. Gaston County v.

    United States, 395 U.S. 285, 293 -294 (1969).

    At the very least, in view of the

    substantial interdistrict disparities in funding and in resulting educational inputs shown by appellees

    to exist under the Texas financing scheme, the burden of proving that these disparities do not in fact

    affect the quality of children’s education must fall upon the appellants. Cf. Hobson v. Hansen, 327 F.

    Supp. 844, 860-861 (DC 1971). Yet appellants made no effort in the District Court to demonstrate that

    educational quality is not affected by variations in funding and in resulting inputs. And, in this

    Court, they have argued no more than that the relationship is ambiguous. This is hardly sufficient to

    overcome appellees’ prima facie showing of state-created discrimination between the schoolchildren of

    Texas with respect to objective educational opportunity.

    Nor can I accept the

    appellants’ apparent suggestion that the Texas Minimum Foundation School Program effectively

    eradicates any discriminatory effects otherwise resulting from the local property tax element of the

    [411 U.S. 1, 87] Texas financing scheme. Appellants assert that, despite its imperfections, the

    Program “does guarantee an adequate education to every child.” 48 The majority, in considering the

    constitutionality of the Texas financing scheme, seems to find substantial merit in this contention,

    for it tells us that the Foundation Program “was designed to provide an adequate minimum educational

    offering in every school in the State,” ante, at 45, and that the Program “assur[es] a basic

    education for every child,” ante, at 49. But I fail to understand how the constitutional problems

    inherent in the financing scheme are eased by the Foundation Program. Indeed, the precise thrust of the

    appellants’ and the Court’s remarks are not altogether clear to me.

    The suggestion may

    be that the state aid received via the Foundation Program sufficiently improves the position of

    property-poor districts vis-a-vis property-rich districts – in terms of educational funds – to

    eliminate any claim of interdistrict discrimination in available educational resources which might

    otherwise exist if educational funding were dependent solely upon local property taxation. Certainly

    the Court has recognized that to demand precise equality of treatment is normally unrealistic, and thus

    minor differences inherent in any practical context usually will not make out a substantial equal

    protection claim. See, e. g., Mayer v. City of Chicago, 404 U.S. 189, 194 -195 (1971); Draper v.

    Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 495 -496 (1963); Bain Peanut Co. v. Pinson, 282 U.S. 499, 501 (1931). But, as

    has already been seen, we are hardly presented here with some de minimis claim of discrimination

    resulting from the play necessary in any functioning system; to the contrary, it is clear that the

    Foundation Program utterly fails to [411 U.S. 1, 88] ameliorate the seriously discriminatory effects

    of the local property tax. 49

    Alternatively, the appellants a

    nd the majority may

    believe that the Equal Protection Clause cannot be offended by substantially unequal state treatment of

    persons who are similarly situated so long as the State provides everyone with some unspecified amount

    of education which evidently is “enough.” 50 The basis for such a novel view is far from clear. It

    is, of course, true that the Constitution does not require precise equality in the treatment of all

    persons. As Mr. Justice Frankfurter explained:

    “The equality at which the `equal

    protection’ clause aims is not a disembodied equality. The Fourteenth Amendment enjoins `the equal

    protection of the laws,’ and laws are not abstract propositions. . . . The Constitution does not

    require things which are different in fact or opinion to be treated in law as though they were the

    same.” Tigner v. Texas, 310 U.S. 141, 147 (1940).

    See also Douglas v. California, 372

    U.S. 353, 357 (1963); Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U.S. 464, 466 (1948). [411 U.S. 1, 89] But this Court

    has never suggested that because some “adequate” level of benefits is provided to all, discrimination

    in the provision of services is therefore constitutionally excusable. The Equal Protection Clause is

    not addressed to the minimal sufficiency but rather to the unjustifiable inequalities of state action.

    It mandates nothing less than that “all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike.” F.

    S. Royster Guano Co. v. Virginia, 253 U.S. 412, 415 (1920).

    Even if the Equal Protection

    Clause encompassed some theory of constitutional adequacy, discrimination in the provision of

    educational opportunity would certainly seem to be a poor candidate for its application. Neither the

    majority nor appellants inform us how judicially manageable standards are to be derived for determining

    how much education is “enough” to excuse constitutional discrimination. One would think that the

    majority would heed its own fervent affirmation of judicial self-restraint before undertaking the

    complex task of determining at large what level of education is constitutionally sufficient. Indeed,

    the majority’s apparent reliance upon the adequacy of the educational opportunity assured by the Texas

    Minimum Foundation School Program seems fundamentally inconsistent with its own recognition that

    educational authorities are unable to agree upon what makes for educational quality, see ante, at 42-43

    and n. 86 and at 47 n. 101. If, as the majority stresses, such authorities are uncertain as to the

    impact of various levels of funding on educational quality, I fail to see where it finds the expertise

    to divine that the particular levels of funding provided by the Program assure an adequate educational

    opportunity – much less an education substantially equivalent in quality to that which a higher level

    of funding might provide. Certainly appellants’ mere assertion before this Court of the adequacy of

    the education guaranteed by the Minimum [411 U.S. 1, 90] Foundation School Program cannot obscure the

    constitutional implications of the discrimination in educational funding and objective educational

    inputs resulting from the local property tax – particularly since the appellees offered substantial

    uncontroverted evidence before the District Court impugning the now much-touted “adequacy” of the

    education guaranteed by the Foundation Program. 51

    In my view, then, it is inequality –

    not some notion of gross inadequacy – of educational opportunity that raises a question of denial of

    equal protection of the laws. I find any other approach to the issue unintelligible and without

    directing principle. Here, appellees have made a substantial showing of wide variations in educational

    funding and the resulting educational opportunity afforded to the schoolchildren of Texas. This

    discrimination is, in large measure, attributable to significant disparities in the taxable wealth of

    local Texas school districts. This is a sufficient showing to raise a substantial question of

    discriminatory state action in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. 52 [411 U.S. 1, 91]

    C

    Despite the evident discriminatory effect of the Texas financing scheme,

    both the appellants and the majority raise substantial questions concerning the precise character of

    the disadvantaged class in this case. The District Court concluded that the Texas financing scheme

    draws “distinction between groups of citizens depending upon the wealth of the district in which they

    live” and thus creates a disadvantaged class composed of persons living in property-poor districts.

    See 337 F. Supp., at 282. See also id., at 281. In light of the data introduced before the District

    Court, the conclusion that the schoolchildren of property-poor districts constitute a sufficient class

    for our purposes seems indisputable to me.

    Appellants contend, however, that in

    constitutional terms this case involves nothing more than discrimination against local school

    districts, not against individuals, since on its face the state scheme is concerned only with the

    provision of funds to local districts. The result of the Texas financing scheme, appellants suggest, is

    merely that some local districts have more available revenues for education; others have less. In that

    respect, [411 U.S. 1, 92] they point out, the States have broad discretion in drawing reasonable

    distinctions between their political subdivisions. See Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward

    County, 377 U.S. 218, 231 (1964); McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 427 (1961); Salsburg v. Maryland,

    346 U.S. 545, 550 -554 (1954).

    But this Court has consistently recognized that where

    there is in fact discrimination against individual interests, the constitutional guarantee of equal

    protection of the laws is not inapplicable simply because the discrimination is based upon some group

    characteristic such as geographic location. See Gordon v. Lance, 403 U.S. 1, 4 (1971); Reynolds v.

    Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 565 -566 (1964); Gray v. Sanders 372 U.S. 368, 379 (1963). Texas has chosen to

    provide free public education for all its citizens, and it has embodied that decision in its

    constitution. 53 Yet, having established public education for its citizens, the State, as a direct

    consequence of the variations in local property wealth endemic to Texas’ financing scheme, has

    provided some Texas schoolchildren with substantially less resources for their education than others.

    Thus, while on its face the Texas scheme may merely discriminate between local districts, the impact of

    that discrimination falls directly upon the children whose educational opportunity is dependent upon

    where they happen to live. Consequently, the District Court correctly concluded that the Texas

    financing scheme discriminates, from a constitutional perspective, between schoolchildren on the basis

    of the amount of taxable property located within their local districts.

    In my Brother

    STEWART’S view, however, such a description of the discrimination inherent in this case is apparently

    not sufficient, for it fails to define the “kind of objectively identifiable classes” that he

    evidently perceives [411 U.S. 1, 93] to be necessary for a claim to be “cognizable under the Equal

    Protection Clause,” ante, at 62. He asserts that this is also the view of the majority, but he is

    unable to cite, nor have I been able to find, any portion of the Court’s opinion which remotely

    suggests that there is no objectively identifiable or definable class in this case. In any event, if he

    means to suggest that an essential predicate to equal protection analysis is the precise identification

    of the particular individuals who compose the disadvantaged class, I fail to find the source from which

    he derives such a requirement. Certainly such precision is not analytically necessary. So long as the

    basis of the discrimination is clearly identified, it is possible to test it against the State’s

    purpose for such discrimination – whatever the standard of

    equal protection analysis empl

  • Mob Rule Amendment

    Rally the

    Mob!
    The One Thing Bush Does Best

    By Greg Moses
    Texas Civil Rights

    Review
    http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke

    Published at Counterpunch
    And The Fort Worth Star-

    Telegram

    Stirring a crowd is one thing. Mob politics is another. Today with his

    announcement that he intends to pass a Constitutional Amendment against gay and lesbian marriage,

    President Bush reminds us what a mob monger he is. “I’m a uniter, not a divider,” promised

    candidate George W. during the election of 2000, but his most effective political initiatives reveal

    that his most sinister political talent is to rally us against them, whoever they

    are.

    That is why so few politicians voted against the Patriot Acts or the wars. When

    Bush brought these issues to the table, he did so with his singular genius for relegating the

    opposition into an intolerable world apart.

    Now he attempts to do the same thing with

    gay and lesbian marriage. “If you dare to vote against this prohibition you will be counted among the

    forces of darkness, and we will bury your political future.” That is the tone that Bush is able to

    strike, even if he never quite puts it that way. He has a talent for raising a mob with code words

    that mask naked power with righteousness.

    The unforgiving tone of Bush leadership is an

    eerie echo of the religious fundamentalism that he purports to oppose in global politics. Even his

    most conservative allies, such as James K. Glassman, of the American Enterprise Institute, recognize

    that today’s “defense of marriage” initiative is a political invitation to energize the fundamentalists

    at home.

    Faith-based agitation in Massachusetts, for instance, has helped to shift

    public opinion ten points in the direction of intolerance, reports Frank Philips of the Boston Globe.

    And this is Catholic, northern fundamentalism, not Protestant southern. So you ain’t seen nothin’

    yet.

    The Boston Globe story gives us another disturbing detail by reporting that the

    popular mood in this case demands majority rule rather than court consideration when it comes to these

    crucial issues of civil rights. But appeals to majority rule have usually been bad news in the history

    of civil rights.

    Beginning with the Bill of Rights, and going all the way up to the

    “Defense of Congressional Pay” (Amendment Number 27), Constitutional Amendments have been put in place

    to protect the relatively powerless against the state and majority rule. In the case of the

    Congressional Pay amendment, two consecutive votes of Congress are demanded, and why? Because when you

    get leaders like George Bush in office, mob fervor is liable to sweep reason away.

    We

    might demand for the American people the same protection the Congress has arranged for itself. Two

    consecutive votes of Congress, with an election intervening.

    Only once has a

    Constitutional amendment been passed by a majority in order to put a minority “in its place.” That was

    the mis-guided Prohibition amendment, the only one to be repealed.

    With the call for a

    Constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian marriage, President Bush summons a new American mob,

    panders to fundamentalism, and reverses the tradition of constitutional amendments, initiated by the

    Bill of Rights. George Bush is a political animal with his back against the wall. And he has made us

    in his image, into a nation of claws and teeth.

  • CounterPunch Reader Asks about Civil Rights

    Q: I read your article in Counterpunch. Some

    questions:

    Was Bethlehem Church pct. primarily black? And were the college
    students

    voting there primarily black? Were the county commissioner
    elections district-based, or at-large?

    As I recollect, county
    commissioners elections in Texas are always district-based. If so,
    was

    Denson-Prince running from the most heavily black district? Were
    there other black county

    commissioners elected previously? What is
    the overall black % in Kaufman County? How many of the

    elected
    commissioners were Democrats?

    I ask these questions because, depending on the

    answers, there may be
    grounds for a voting rights suit claiming racial

    gerrymandering.

    As regards the claim of vote fraud, it sounds, well, somewhat

    plausible. But the existence of racial harassment–the Republican
    (and presumably white) poll

    watcher making a nuisance of himself at a
    precinct that may be a black precinct–is pretty clear

    evidence of
    racial intimidation of the kind that could be useful in a racial
    gerrymandering

    lawsuit.

    A: Yes, yes, the church, the college, and the
    boxes south of

    the tracks are all predominantly black.
    And a white Republican will now replace a black
    Democrat

    in the Northeast Commissioner’s seat, leaving the
    four-man commissioner’s court not only free of

    Democrats,
    but also free of black representation. Retiring Ivan Johnson
    is African American.

    Census 2000 QuickFacts for Kaufman County report 11.5 percent African American. Here are some

    details:

    Going by the 2000 census tracts, the South Terrell
    area is 88 percent black (tract

    505, voting boxes 26,
    34, 5). These boxes went heavily for Denson-Prince,
    all others went for

    her white opponent.

    North of the tracks, the west side: 70 percent white,
    10 percent

    black, and 16 percent Hispanic (census
    tract 503, voting boxes 38 & 19).

    North of the

    tracks, on the east side: 63 percent
    white, 9 percent black, and 25 percent Hispanic
    (census

    tract 504, voting box 7).

    Then we have the rural boxes in the northeast county:
    88

    percent white, 5 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic
    (census tract 506, voting boxes 6, 8, and

    9).

  • Blend It, Don't End It: A Report for Affirmative Action

    SAN ANTONIO, Texas (June 24, 2004) – A new report documents the

    continuing lack of racial and ethnic diversity at Texas A&M, the University of Texas at Austin, and

    within Texas law and medical schools, despite many energetic efforts to try race-neutral

    alternatives.


    Go to Equal Justice

    Society Web Site

    EXCERPTS:

    (1) We also conclude that the Ten Percent

    Plan is “good but not good
    enough” regarding racial/ethnic diversity because the percentage of Black

    and
    Latino graduates from the most competitive high schools in Texas are less likely
    to enroll in

    selective public universities in Texas than they were prior to Hopwood….. (2) Another policy reason

    for moving beyond sole reliance on test scores and
    grade-point averages is the need to evaluate

    students’ promise within the context
    of their opportunities, rather than cementing structural

    inequalities in K-12
    education. For example, across all Texas high schools, 21.6% of Whites

    are
    enrolled in AP courses, compared to only 11.4% of African Americans and 12.4%
    of Latinos.

    While the Edgewood litigation and the subsequent school finance
    legislation played a major role in

    making public school funding in Texas more
    equitable, as it stands there is still a legally

    permissible gap between the
    funding per student in low-wealth and high-wealth school districts. [pdf

    55]

    (3) “Texas is deeply segregated, regionally and neighborhood-by-neighborhood in its

    major cities, so
    the majority of our high schools are almost entirely white or black or brown. This

    law is colorblind,
    but it used our bitter history of segregation to promote diversity.”–David

    Montejano [pdf 55, note 230]

    (4) While the diversity rationale is the focus of this

    policy report, the Supreme
    Court also recognizes that remedying the present effects of past

    discrimination
    can be a compelling interest for public entities to justify race-

    conscious
    affirmative action. In order for a university to institute affirmative action
    based on

    a remedial justification, it must establish that it has a “strong basis in
    evidence for its

    conclusion that remedial action was necessary.” [pdf 61]