United States v. Lawrence County School District

606 F. Supp. 820, 24 Educ. L. Rep. 783, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21725
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedNovember 27, 1984
DocketCiv. A. No. H2216(L)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 606 F. Supp. 820 (United States v. Lawrence County School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Lawrence County School District, 606 F. Supp. 820, 24 Educ. L. Rep. 783, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21725 (S.D. Miss. 1984).

Opinion

[821]*821MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

TOM S. LEE, District Judge.

In 1967, the United States brought suit against Lawrence County School District to enjoin discrimination on the basis of race in the public school system. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered orders in November of 1969 requiring desegregation of the county schools. In implementing the orders, the school district established three attendance zones. At present, students in grades 1-12 living in the northeast section of Lawrence County attend New Hebron School. Students in grades 1-12 who reside in the southwest section of the county attend Topeka Tilton School. All other students live in Zone 2 and attend Monticello High School and McCullough Junior High School in grades 5-12. Those elementary students in the eastern portion of that zone attend Beulah Williams School and those in the western section attend Monticello Elementary.

In May 1984, the electorate of Lawrence County approved a school bond issue of approximately $4,000,000.00 for construction and renovation of county schools. The case is before the court now on the request of the plaintiff-intervenors to enjoin the proposed construction and renovation pending a trial on the merits of their claims of discrimination.

The defendants argue that the motion should be dismissed because this court is prohibited from reaching the merits of the plaintiff-intervenors’ claims. First, the defendants assert that the plaintiff-intervenors lack standing to bring their claims before the court. The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed.2d 873 (1954), and its progeny have clearly established the right of a child to attend a desegregated school. See, e.g., Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1, 11-12, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1273-1274, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971). An allegation of denial of this right, therefore, is a charge of sufficient injury to meet the constitutional standing requirements. In Allen v. Wright, — U.S.-, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984), the plaintiffs charged that their right to receive an education in a racially integrated school was diminished by the failure of the Internal Revenue Service to adopt standards that were sufficient to deny tax exempt status to racially discriminatory schools. Id. at -, 104 S.Ct. at 3319. Acknowledging that the plaintiffs’ claimed injury was “one of the most serious injuries recognized in our legal system,” the Court nonetheless dismissed the case for lack of standing because “the injury alleged is not fairly traceable to the Government conduct [plaintiffs] challenge as unlawful.” Id. at -, 104 S.Ct. at 3328. Such is not the case here. Furthermore, the relief sought, if granted, could restore the denied right to the plaintiff-intervenors. Therefore, the court concludes that the plaintiff-intervenors have standing for the merits of their claims to be considered.

The defendants also charge that the plaintiff-intervenors’ claims are barred by res judicata. After the special election in May 1984, the defendants initiated the statutory procedure for validation of the bond issue. The appropriate material was submitted to the chancellor and, when no objections were raised, an order validating the bond issue was entered. The plaintiffintervenors’ claims, according to the defendants, could only be raised in the validation proceeding, and failure to object at that time forever bars their action.

If the plaintiff-intervenors were objecting to the validity of the bond issue, the defendants’ argument perhaps would have merit. Plaintiff-intervenors, however, do not challenge the bond issue’s validity; rather, they contend that the proposed expenditure of the bond funds is in violation of their constitutional rights and of the 1969 Fifth Circuit Orders. Therefore, the chancery court proceeding was not the appropriate forum for raising these claims, and, in fact, under Mississippi law, the chancellor was without authority to consider them. See Kerley v. City of Hattiesburg, 361 So.2d 44, 54 (Miss.1978). Consequently, this court is of the opinion that the [822]*822plaintiff-intervenors’ claims are not barred by res judicata because the issues were not and could not have been resolved in the state court action.

Having resolved the defendants’ arguments in favor of the plaintiff-intervenors, the court can now proceed to the merits of their motion.

The criteria for the issuance of a preliminary injunction are well-settled in the Fifth Circuit. The moving party must demonstrate:

1. A substantial likelihood that the movant will prevail on the merits;

2. A substantial threat that the movant will suffer irreparable injury if the injunction is not granted;

3. That the threatened injury to the movant outweighs the threatened harm the injunction may do to the nonmoving party; and

4. That granting the preliminary injunction will not disserve the public interest. Canal Authority v. Callaway, 489 F.2d 567, 572 (5th Cir.1974).

A school board has an affirmative duty “to take no actions which would reinstitute a dual school system or which would discriminate against any child on the basis of race.” Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 584 F.2d 78, 81 (5th Cir.1978). In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1, 21, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1278-79, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971), the United States Supreme Court recognized that the location and condition of school facilities are important factors in the desegregation of a school system. The Court stated: “It is the responsibility of local authorities and the district court to see to it that further school construction and abandonment is not used and does not serve to perpetuate or re-establish the dual system.” 402 U.S. at 21, 91 S.Ct. at 1279. The 1969 Fifth Circuit Order relating to Lawrence County included a section which provided: “All school construction, school consolidation and site selection (including the location of any temporary classrooms) in this system shall be done in a manner which will prevent the recurrence of the dual school structure once this design plan is implemented.”

Therefore, it is clear that the defendants had a duty, pursuant to case law and the Fifth Circuit Order, to avoid construction and renovation of school facilities that would tend to re-establish a dual system. To satisfy the first prong of the Canal Authority test, the plaintiff-intervenors must demonstrate a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits of their claim that the defendants breached that duty.1

In a recent decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the site selection decision of the Lincoln Parish School Board. Copeland v. Lincoln Parish School Board, 598 F.2d 977 (5th Cir.1979). The court approved the factors considered by the Board based on earlier decisions in the Circuit.

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Bluebook (online)
606 F. Supp. 820, 24 Educ. L. Rep. 783, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-lawrence-county-school-district-mssd-1984.