American Civil Rights Foundation v. Los Angeles Unified School District

The issue presented in this appeal is whether the “Magnet” and “Permit with Transportation” (PWT) programs of defendant Los Angeles Unified School District (the District) violate Proposition 209 (Cal. Const., art. I, § 31, eff. Nov. 6, 1996) because the programs take into account a student’s race or ethnicity in determining admission. Proposition 209 prohibits favorable or discriminatory consideration of race or ethnicity in public education, but expressly exempts from its reach court-ordered integration plans in existence prior to its effective date. We hold the trial court correctly ruled the District’s Magnet and PWT programs are exempt from the prohibition in Proposition 209 because they were part of an existing court-ordered integration plan approved and implemented in 1981.

BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Following nearly two decades of litigation, the superior court entered a final order on September 10, 1981, approving with modification an integration plan in Crawford v. Board of Education (Super. Ct. L.A. County, 1981, No. 822854). The plan of the District included provisions for Magnet schools and PWT programs, both of which took into account the race or…