• Local teacher reacts to decision
• The Jefferson County School System responds to the Supreme Court decision.
• Plaintiffs react to decision
• WHAS11 News: complete coverage
• Full text of court ruling
• Mayor Abramson speaks about decision
• Decision handed down
• History of Jefferson County busing
• Crystal Merideth vs. JCPS
• JCPS defends desegregation policy
• Supreme Court timeline

Nothing is going to change for the upcoming school year: we can’t stress that enough to parents.

And today’s decision won’t affect kids in magnet and traditional programs. We are not talking about a massive number of kids being shuffled around but things will eventually change for some students.

“They struck it down, so that is not a victory for us,” says Jefferson County Public School Board member Stephen Imhoff. “But there is good language in there.”

Imhoff is referring to the Supreme Court Justice’s opinion that says race cannot be used in assigning kids to schools.

“There obviously will have to be some shuffling,” says Imhoff.

The district interprets the opinion to mean race can’t be the deciding factor but they can still look at race.

“I think we can do that we can use race as one of the factors, (but) not all of the factors.”

School authorities say some key statements by Justice Anthony Kennedy open the door for other options to keep schools racially balanced, like using a lottery system.

“We do not see this as a doom and gloom day for JCPS or our vision about how to best educate all students,” says Pat Todd, Director of Student Assignment for JCPS.

Now the district will weigh other options they can use to achieve diversity- like geographical boundaries and socio-economic standards.

They wouldn’t share all of their ideas with us but say they have about 8 on the table right now.

But nothing will change for students this year, and nothing will change for magnet or traditional schools down the road.

A federal judge locally will review the justice’s opinion and will decide where things proceed from here.

“So the very first step than is to have a smooth and orderly open of school and the second step is to wait till Judge Heyburn has convened a hearing,” says Todd.

The bottom line is - things are going to have to change.

We don’t know exactly how many kids will be impacted and the district says a few schools won’t have to shoulder the entire burden.

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More coverage of Thursday's decision:

Supreme Court rejects school race plans

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school diversity plans that take account of students' race in two major public school districts but left the door open for using race in limited circumstances.

The decision in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide, and it further restricts how public school systems may attain racial diversity.

The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. The court's four liberal justices dissented.

Yet Justice Anthony Kennedy would not go as far as the other four conservative justices, saying in a concurring opinion that race may be a component of school district plans designed to achieve diversity.

To the extent that Roberts' opinion can be interpreted to foreclose the use of race in any circumstance, Kennedy said, "I disagree with that reasoning."

He agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

Attorney Teddy Gordon, who argued that the school system's plan was discriminatory, said it appeared that Roberts adopted similar reasoning.

"Clearly, we need better race neutral alternatives," Gordon said. "Instead of spending zillions of dollars around the country to place a black child next to a white child, let's reduce class size. All the schools are equal. We will no longer accept that an African-American majority within a school is unacceptable."

Jefferson County Public Schools spokeswoman Lauren Roberts said board members in Louisville were still reading the opinion and declined to comment immediately.

The two school systems in Thursday's decisions employ slightly different methods of taking students' race into account when determining which school they will attend.

Federal appeals courts had upheld both plans after some parents sued. The Bush administration the parents' side, arguing that racial diversity is a noble goal but can be sought only through race-neutral means.

Louisville's schools spent 25 years under a court order to eliminate the effects of state-sponsored segregation. After a federal judge freed the Jefferson County school board, which encompasses Louisville, from his supervision, the board decided to keep much of the court-ordered plan in place to prevent schools from re-segregating.

The lawyer for the Louisville system called the plan a success story that enjoys broad community support, including among parents of white and black students.

The Seattle school district said it used race as one among many factors, relied on it only in some instances and then only at the end of a lengthy process in allocating students among the city's high schools. Seattle suspended its program after parents sued.

The opinion was the first on the divisive issue since 2003, when a 5-4 ruling upheld the limited consideration of race in college admissions to attain a diverse student body. Since then, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who approved of the limited use of race, retired. Her replacement, Justice Samuel Alito was in the majority that struck down the school system plans in Kentucky and Washington.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected public school assignment plans that take account of students' race.

The decision in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide, and it leaves public school systems with a limited arsenal to maintain racial diversity.

The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent that was joined by the court's other three liberals.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Earlier Reports:

Thursday, June 28th, the Supreme Court is expected to pass down a ruling whether Jefferson County Public Schools can use race when assigning students to school.

A Louisville mother sued JCPS after her son was denied entrance to Bloom Elementary. He is white and his admission would have thrown off the school's racial balance.

WHAS11 News and whas11.com will update you as soon as the decision is announced.

Web Story produced by Shelonda Moreland

Earlier Reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly seven months have passed since the Supreme Court heard arguments about public school integration plans. A decision, it seems, is finally at hand.

Whether school districts can use race as a factor in assigning students to schools is the biggest unresolved issue among the eight remaining cases. But as the court enters what is expected to be the final week of its term, several other important topics loom. They include disputes over limits on speech, separation of church and state and executing the mentally ill.

The court’s final days are being watched perhaps even more closely than usual this year because this is the first full term for Chief Justice John Roberts and the current lineup of justices.

Decisions so far in cases on abortion, discrimination and the rights of defendants have put the court on a more conservative footing with the addition of President Bush’s two appointees, Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

“It will tell us so much more about the Roberts court when we see decisions on hot-button issues like race and religion,” said Thomas Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who argues before the court and follows it closely.

It is typical for justices to leave some of the hardest cases to the end, writing opinions that have been the subject of lengthy negotiations and that often are accompanied by multiple dissents and concurrences.