Black and White

Here's Slate's Dahlia Lithwick's account of yesterday's big Supreme Court arguments in the Louisville and Seattle school integration cases. Go to How Appealing for more on the arguments.

My view is that locally developed integration plans -- such as Louisville's attempt to ensure between 15 and 50 percent non-white enrollment in its schools -- should be permitted, especially in light of the segregated housing patterns that exist virtually everywhere. I am much less bothered by explicitly race-conscious efforts to achieve integration among several public schools within a district than I am by the at times clumsy steps taken by some universities to deal with the racial make-up of their students.

And note the decision by the Bush Administration to take the side of the parents seeking to end the integration plans. Typical. Just another example of conservatives who favor "local control" until they (or their kids) don't get what they want. They'll be happy to get a little judicial activism now.