National Ass'n for the Advancement of Colored People v. San Bernardino City Unified School District

In this decade-long school desegregation case, the trial court has issued an “amendment to mandate” in response to the remand of the case by the California Supreme Court. The San Bernardino City Unified School *72 District has appealed. We reverse, because the trial court incorrectly followed the directions of the Supreme Court.

I.

Believing that the San Bernardino City Unified School District had not done enough to alleviate racial segregation and imbalance in its schools, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed suit against the district in April 1972, on behalf of the minority students attending the district’s schools. After a two-stage trial, the trial court found that certain schools in the district were segregated and that “[vjoluntary desegregation [which is what the district had been utilizing] . . . cannot and will not achieve ultimate desegregation . . . .” The district was ordered to “proceed forthwith to eliminate or alleviate segregation . . . and to place into operation a plan reasonably calculated to do so by September of 1974. ” 1

The Supreme Court reviewed the judgment in National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored…