DOJ didn't ensure school discrimination ended before dropping cases: watchdog
Summary
The Justice Department has ended more than 50 old school desegregation cases without fully checking if the schools had stopped racial discrimination. A watchdog group found that in many cases, the DOJ did not ask courts to confirm that schools had fixed their past discriminatory practices before dismissing the cases.Key Facts
- Since President Trump took office in 2025, the DOJ supported ending at least 56 school desegregation cases.
- In at least 18 cases, the DOJ did not ask courts to confirm if schools had achieved "unitary status," meaning they ended racial discrimination.
- Courts consider six main areas to decide unitary status: student and staff assignments, transportation, facilities, and extracurricular activities.
- One case in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, was dismissed despite ongoing discrimination, after the DOJ sided with the school board.
- The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has filed lawsuits and consent decrees since the 1960s to fight school segregation.
- These legal agreements aimed to change school policies to avoid racial segregation of students.
- As of May 2022, the DOJ was involved in about 140 active desegregation cases before recent dismissals.
- The watchdog group that reported this is Red Line for Civil Rights, linked to former DOJ attorneys.
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