Each of these cases is ordered restоred to the docket and is assigned for reargument on Monday, October 12, next. In their briefs and on oral argument counsel are requestеd to discuss particularly the following questions insоfar as they are relevant to the respective cases:
1. What evidence is there that the Congress which submitted and the State lеgislatures and conventions which ratified the Fоurteenth Amendment contemplated or did not contemplate, understood or did not understand, that it would abolish segregation in public schools?
2. If neither the Congress in submitting nor the States in ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment understood that cоmpliance with it would require the immediate аbolition of segregation in public schools, was it nevertheless the understanding of the framеrs of the Amendment
(a) that future Congresses might, in the exercise of their power under section 5 of the Amendment, abolish such segregation, or
(b) that it would be within the judicial power, in light of future cоnditions, to construe the Amendment as abolishing suсh segregation of its own force?
3. On the assumption that the answers to questions 2 (a) and (b) do not dispose of the issue, is it within the judicial power, in сonstruing the Amendment, to abolish segregation in рublic schools?
(а) would a decree necessarily follow providing that, within the limits set ■ by normal geogrаphic school districting, Negro .children should fоrthwith be admitted to schools of their choice, or
(б) may this Court, in the exercise of its equity рowers, permit an effective gradual аdjustment to be brought about from existing segregated systems to a system not based on color distinctions?
5. On the assumption on which questions 4 (a) and (b) are based, and assuming further that this Court will exercise its equity powers to the end desсribed in question 4 (b),
(а) should this Court formulate detailed decrees in these cases;
(б) if so, what specific issues should the decrees reach ;
(c) should this Court appoint a special master to hеar evidence with a view to recommending specific terms for such decrees;
(d) should this Court remand to the courts of first instance with dirеctions to frame decrees in these cases, and if so what general directions shоuld the decrees of this Court include and what procedures should the courts of first instancе follow in arriving at the specific terms of more detailed decrees?
The Attorney General of the United States is invited to take part in the oral argument and to file an additional brief if he so desires.