WASHINGTON ET AL. v. SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 ET AL.
No. 81-9
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 22, 1982—Decided June 30, 1982
458 U.S. 457
No. 81-9. Argued March 22, 1982—Decided June 30, 1982
Michael W. Hoge argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief for appellees Seattle School District No. 1 et al. were Camden M. Hall and David J. Burman. Phillip L. Burton, Frederick L. Noland, Thomas A. Lemly, and William H. Neukom filed a brief for appellees American Civil Liberties Union et al. Ladd Leavens filed a brief for appellees East Pasco Neighborhood Council et al.*
JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.
We are presented here with an extraordinary question: whether an elected local school board may use the Fourteenth Amendment to defend its program of busing for integration from attack by the State.
I
A
Seattle School District No. 1 (District), which is largely coterminous with the city of Seattle, Wash., is charged by state law with administering 112 schools and educating approximately 54,000 public school students. About 37% of these
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed by Henry M. Aronson for Grant L. Anderson et al.; by Palmer Smith for the League of Women Voters of Seattle et al.; by Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit III, and Bill Lann Lee for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and by Judith A. Lonnquist for the Washington Education Association.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed by Gwendolyn H. Gregory, August W. Steinhilber, and Thomas A. Shannon for the National School Boards Association; and by William J. Bender for the Seattle Chapter Japanese American Citizens League.
Despite these efforts, the District in 1977 came under increasing pressure to accelerate its program of desegregation.2 In response, the District‘s Board of Directors (School Board) enacted a resolution defining “racial imbalance” as “the situation that exists when the combined minority student enrollment in a school exceeds the districtwide combined average by 20 percentage points, provided that the single minority enrollment . . . of no school will exceed 50 percent of the student body.” 473 F. Supp. 996, 1006 (WD Wash. 1979). The District resolved to eliminate all such imbalance from the Seattle public schools by the beginning of the 1979-1980 academic year.3
The desegregation program, implemented in the 1978-1979 academic year, apparently was effective: the District Court found that the Seattle Plan “has substantially reduced the number of racially imbalanced schools in the district and has substantially reduced the percentage of minority students in those schools which remain racially imbalanced.” 473 F. Supp., at 1007.
B
In late 1977, shortly before the Seattle Plan was formally adopted by the District, a number of Seattle residents who opposed the desegregation strategies being discussed by the School Board formed an organization called the Citizens for
Its proponents placed Initiative 350 on the Washington ballot for the November 1978 general election. During the ensuing campaign, the District Court concluded, the leadership of CiVIC “acted legally and responsibly,” and did not address “its appeals to the racial biases of the voters.” 473 F. Supp., at 1009. At the same time, however, the court‘s findings demonstrate that the initiative was directed solely at desegregative busing in general, and at the Seattle Plan in particular. Thus, “[e]xcept for the assignment of students to effect racial balancing, the drafters of Initiative 350 attempted to preserve to school districts the maximum flexibility in the assignment of students,” id., at 1008, and “[e]xcept for racially-balancing purposes” the initiative “permits local school districts to assign students other than to their nearest or next nearest schools for most, if not all, of the major reasons for which students are at present assigned to schools other than their nearest or next nearest schools.” Id., at 1010.6 In campaigning for the measure, CiVIC officials accurately represented that its passage would result in “no loss of school district flexibility other than in busing for desegregation purposes,” id., at 1008, and it is evident that the campaign focused almost exclusively on the wisdom of “forced busing” for integration. See id., at 1009.
On November 8, 1978, two months after the Seattle Plan went into effect, Initiative 350 passed by a substantial margin, drawing almost 66% of the vote statewide. The initiative failed to attract majority support in two state legislative
After a 9-day trial, the District Court made extensive and detailed findings of fact. The court determined that “[t]hose Seattle schools which are most crowded arе located in those areas of the city where the preponderance of minority families live.” Id., at 1001. Yet the court found that Initiative 350, if implemented, “will prevent the racial balancing of a significant number of Seattle schools and will cause the school system to become more racially imbalanced than it presently is,” “will make it impossible for Tacoma schools to maintain their present racial balance,” and will make “doubtful” the
The District Court then held Initiative 350 unconstitutional for three independent reasons. The court first concluded that the initiative established an impermissible racial classification in violation of Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U. S. 385 (1969), and Lee v. Nyquist, 318 F. Supp. 710 (WDNY 1970) (three-judge court), summarily aff‘d, 402 U. S. 935 (1971), “because it permits busing for non-racial reasons but forbids it for racial reasons.” 473 F. Supp., at 1012. The court next held Initiative 350 invalid because “a racially discriminatory purpose was one of the factors which motivated the conception and adoption of the initiative.” Id., at 1013.9 Finally, the District Court reasoned that Initiative 350 was unconstitutionally overbroad, because in the absence of a
On the merits, a divided panel of thе United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed, relying entirely on the District Court‘s first rationale. 633 F. 2d 1338 (1980).11 By subjecting desegregative student assignments to unique treatment, the Court of Appeals concluded, Initiative 350 “both creates a constitutionally-suspect racial classification and radically restructures the political process of Washington by allowing a state-wide majority to usurp traditional local authority over local school board educational policies.” Id., at 1344. In doing so, the court continued, the initiative ”remove[s] from local school boards their existing authority, and in large part their capability, to enact programs designed to desegregate the schools.” Id., at 1346 (emphasis in original and footnote omitted). The court found such a result contrary to the principles of Hunter v. Erickson, supra, and Lee v. Nyquist, supra. The court acknowledged that the issue would be a different one had a successor school board attempted to rescind the Seattle Plan. Here, however, “a different governmental body—the state-wide electorate—rescinded a policy voluntarily enacted by locally elected school boards already subject to local political control.” 633 F. 2d, at 1346.12
II
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees racial minorities the right to full participation in the political life of the community. It is beyond dispute, of course, that given racial or ethnic groups may not be denied the franchise, or precluded from entering into the political process in a reliable and meaningful manner. See White v. Regester, 412 U. S. 755 (1973); Nixon v. Herndon, 273 U. S. 536 (1927). But the Fourteenth Amendment also reaches “a political structure that treats all individuals as equals,” Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U. S. 55, 84 (1980) (STEVENS, J., concurring in judgment), yet more subtly distorts governmental processes in such a way as to place special burdens on the ability of minority groups to achieve beneficial legislation.
This principle received its clearest expression in Hunter v. Erickson, supra, a case that involved attempts to overturn antidiscrimination legislation in Akron, Ohio. The Akron City Council, pursuant to its ordinary legislative processes, had enacted a fair housing ordinance. In response, the local citizenry, using an established referendum procedure, see 393 U. S., at 390, and n. 6; id., at 393-394, and n. (Harlan, J., concurring), amended the city charter to provide that ordinances regulating real estate transactions “on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry must first be approved by a majority of the electors voting on the question at a regular or general election before said ordinance shall be
Appeals reversed on this issue, concluding that the District Court had abused its discretion in denying fees. The Court of Appeals determined that the School Districts fell within the language of the attorney‘s fees statutes,
In striking down the charter amendment, the Hunter Court recognized that, on its face, the provision “draws no distinctions among racial and religious groups.” Id., at 390. But it did differentiate “between those groups who sought the law‘s protection against racial . . . discriminatio[n] in the sale and rental of real estate and those who sought to regulate real property transactions in the pursuit of other ends,” ibid., thus “disadvantag[ing] those who would benefit from laws barring racial . . . discriminatio[n] as against those who would bar other discriminations or who would otherwise regulate the real estate market in their favor.” Id., at 391. In “reality,” the burden imposed by such an arrangement necessarily “falls on the minority. The majority needs no protection against discrimination and if it did, a referendum might be bothersome but no more than that.” Ibid. In effect, then, the charter amendment served as an “explicitly racial classification treating racial housing matters differently from other racial and housing matters.” Id., at 389. This made the amendment constitutionally suspect: “the State may no more disadvantage any particular group by making it more difficult to enact legislation in its behalf than it may dilute any person‘s vote or give any group a smaller representation than another of comparable size.” Id., at 393 (emphasis added).
Applying Hunter, the three-judge District Court invalidated the statute, noting that under the provision “[t]he Commissioner [of Education] and local appointed officials are prohibited from acting in [student assignment] matters only where racial criteria are involved.” Id., at 719. In the court‘s view, the statute therefore “place[d] burdens on the implementation of educational policies designed to deal with race on the local level” by “treating educational matters involving racial criteria differently from other educational matters and making it more difficult to deal with racial imbalance in the public schools.” Ibid. (emphasis in original). This drew an impermissible distinction “between the treatment of problems involving racial matters and that afforded other problems in the same area.” Id., at 718. This Court affirmed the District Court‘s judgment without opinion. 402 U. S. 935 (1971).
These cases yield a simple but central principle. As Justice Harlan noted while concurring in the Court‘s opinion in
III
We believe that the Court of Appeals properly focused on Hunter and Lee, for we find the principle of those cases dispositive of the issue here. In our view, Initiative 350 must fall because it does “not attemp[t] to allocate governmental power on the basis of any general principle.” Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U. S., at 395 (Harlan, J., concurring). Instead, it uses the racial nature of an issue to define the governmental decisionmaking structure, and thus imposes substantial and unique burdens on racial minorities.
Noting that Initiative 350 nowhere mentions “race” or “integration,” appellants suggest that the legislation has no racial overtones; they maintain that Hunter is inapposite because the initiative simply permits busing for certain enumerated purposes while neutrally forbidding it for all other reasons.
We find it difficult to believe that appellants’ analysis is seriously advanced, however, fоr despite its facial neutrality there is little doubt that the initiative was effectively drawn for racial purposes. Neither the initiative‘s sponsors, nor the District Court, nor the Court of Appeals had any difficulty perceiving the racial nature of the issue settled by Initiative 350. Thus, the District Court found that the text of the initiative was carefully tailored to interfere only with desegregative busing.14 Proponents of the initiative candidly “represented that there would be no loss of school district flexibility other than in busing for desegregation purposes.” 473 F. Supp., at 1008. And, as we have noted, Initiative 350 in fact allows school districts to bus their students “for most, if not all,” of the nonintegrative purposes required by their educational policies. Id., at 1010. The Washington electorate surely was aware of this, for it was “assured” by CiVIC officials that “‘99% of the school districts in the state‘“—those that lacked mandatory integration programs—“would not be affected by the passage of 350.” Id., at 1008-1009. It is beyond reasonable dispute, then, that the initiative was enacted “‘because of,’ not merely ‘in spite of,’ its adverse effects upon” busing for integration. Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U. S. 256, 279 (1979).
Even accepting the view that Initiative 350 was enacted for such a purpose, the United States—which has changed its position during the course of this litigation, and now supports the State—maintains that busing for integration, unlike the
In any event, our cases suggest that desegregation of the public schools, like the Akron open housing ordinance, at bottom inures primarily to the benefit of the minority, and is designed for that purpose. Education has come to be “a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment.” Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483, 493 (1954). When that environment is largely shaped by members of different racial and cultural groups, minority children can achieve their full
It is undeniable that busing for integration—particularly when ordered by a federal court—now engenders considerably more controversy than does the sort of fair housing ordinance debated in Hunter. See Estes v. Metropolitan Branches of Dallas NAACP, 444 U. S., at 448-451 (POWELL,
B
We are also satisfied that the practical effect of Initiative 350 is to work a reallocation of power of the kind condemned in Hunter. The initiative removes the authority to address a racial problem—and only a racial problem—from the existing decisionmaking body, in such a way as to burden minority interests. Those favoring the elimination of de facto school segregation now must seek relief from the state legislature, or from the statewide electorate. Yet authority over all other student assignment decisions, as well as over most other areas of educational policy, remains vested in the local school board. Indeed, by specifically exempting from Initiative 350‘s proscriptions most nonracial reasons for assigning students away from their neighborhood schools, the initiative expressly requires those championing school integration to surmount a considerably higher hurdle than persons seeking comparable legislative action. As in Hunter, then, the community‘s political mechanisms are modified to place effective decisionmaking authority over a racial issue at a different level of government.17 In a very obvious sense, the initiative
The state appellants and the United States, in response to this line of analysis, argue that Initiative 350 has not worked any reallocation of power. They note that the State necessarily retains plenary authority over Washington‘s system of education, and therefore they suggest that the initiative
rather, the comparative structural burden placed on the political achievement of minority interests. Thus, in Hunter, the procedures for enacting racial legislation were modified in such a way as to place effective control in the hands of the citywide electorate. Similarly here, the power to enact racial legislation has been reallocated. In each case, the effect of the challenged action was to redraw decisionmaking authority over racial matters—and only over racial matters—in such a way as to place comparative burdens on minorities. While JUSTICE POWELL and the United States find it crucial that the proponents of integrated schools remain free to use Washington‘s initiative system to further their ends, that was true in Hunter as well: proponents of open housing were not barred from invoking Akron‘s initiative procedures to repeal the charter amendment, or to enact fair housing legislation of their own. It surely is an excessively formal exercise, then, to argue that the procedural revisions at issue in Hunter imposed special burdens on minorities, but that the selective allocation of decisionmaking authority worked by Initiative 350 does not erect comparable political obstacles. Indeed, Hunter would have been virtually identical to this case had the Akron charter amendment simply barred the City Council from passing any fair housing ordinance, as Initiative 350 forbids the use of virtually all mandatory desegregation strategies. Surely, however, Hunter would not have come out the other way had the charter amendment made no provision for the passage of fair housing legislation, instead of subjecting such legislation to ratification by referendum.
The United States also would note that Initiative 350‘s “modification of state policy [was] not the result of any unusual political procedure,” Brief for United States 30, for initiatives and referenda are often used by the Washington electorate. But that observation hardly serves to distinguish this case from Hunter, since the fair housing charter amendment was added through the unexceptional use of Akron‘s initiative procedure. See 393 U. S., at 387.
This at first glance would seem to be a potent argument, for States traditionally have been accorded the widest latitude in ordering their internal governmental processes, see Holt Civic Club v. Tuscaloosa, 439 U. S. 60, 71 (1978), and school boards, as creatures of the State, obviously must give effect to policies announced by the state legislature. But “insisting that a State may distribute legislative power as it desires . . . furnish[es] no justification for a legislative structure which otherwise would violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Nor does the implementation of this change through popular referendum immunize it.” Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U. S., at 392. The issue here, after all, is not whether Washington has the authority to intervene in the affairs of local school boards; it is, rather, whether the State has exercised that authority in a manner consistent with the Equal Protection Clause. As the Court noted in Hunter: “[T]hough Akron might have proceeded by majority vote . . . on all its municipal legislation, it has instead chosen a more complex system. Having done so, the State may no more disadvantage any particular group by making it more difficult to enact legislation in its behalf than it may dilute any person‘s vote.” Id., at 392-393.18 Washington also has chosen
At the outset, it is irrelevant that the State might have vested all decisionmaking authority in itself, so long as the political structure it in fact erected imposes comparative burdens on minority interests; that much is settled by Hunter and by Lee.19 And until the passage of Initiative 350, Washington law in fact had established the local school board, rather than the State, as the entity charged with making decisions of the type at issue here. Like all 50 States, see Brief for National School Boards Assn. as Amicus Curiae 11, 14-16, Washington of course is ultimately responsible for providing education within its borders, see
Thus “each common school district board of directors” is made “accountable for the proper operation of [its] district to the local community and its electorate.”
Indeed, the notion of school board responsibility for local educational programs is so firmly rooted that local boards are subject to disclosure and reporting provisions specifically designed to ensure the board‘s “accountability” to the people of the community for “the educational programs in the school distric[t].”
Given this statutory structure, we have little difficulty concluding that Initiative 350 worked a major reordering of the State‘s educational decisionmaking process. Before adoption of the initiative, the power to determine what programs would most appropriately fill a school district‘s educational needs—including programs involving student assignment and desegregation—was firmly committed to the local board‘s
That we reach this conclusion should come as no surprise, for when faced with a similar educational scheme in Milliken v. Bradley, supra,24 the Court concluded that the actions of a local school board could not be attributed to the State that had created it. We there addressed the Michigan education system, which vests in the State constitutional responsibility for providing education: “‘The policy of [Michigan] has been to retain control of its school system, to be administered throughout the State under State laws by local State agencies . . . to carry out the delegated functions given [them] by the legislаture.‘” Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U. S., at 794 (MARSHALL, J., dissenting), quoting School District of City of Lansing v. State Board of Education, 367 Mich. 591, 595, 116 N. W. 2d 866, 868 (1962). See Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U. S., at 726, n. 5. To fulfill this responsibility, the State of Michigan provided a substantial measure of school district funding, established standards for teacher certification, determined part of the curriculum, set a minimum school term, approved bus routes and textbooks, established disciplinary procedures, and under certain circumstances had the power even to remove local school board members. See id., at 795-796 (MARSHALL, J., dissenting). See also id., at 726, n. 5, 727 (describing state controls over education); id., at 768, and n. 4 (WHITE, J., dissenting) (same); id., at 794 (MARSHALL, J., dissenting) (same).
Yet the Court, noting that “[n]o single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of schools,” concluded that the “Michigan educational structure . . . in common with most States, provides for a large measure of local control.” Id., at 741-742. Relying on this analysis, the Court determined that a Michigan school board‘s assignment policies could not be attributed to the State, and therefore declined to permit interdistrict busing as a remedy for one school district‘s acts of unconstitu-
In any event, we believe that the question here is again settled by Lee. There, state control of the educational system was fully as complete as it now is in Washington. See generally
To be sure, “the simple repeal or modification of desegregation or antidiscrimination laws, without more, never has been viewed as embodying a presumptively invalid racial classification.” Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education, post, at 539. See Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman, 443 U. S. 526, 531, n. 5 (1979); Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U. S., at 390, n. 5. As Justice Harlan noted in Hunter, the voters of the polity may express their displeasure through an established legislative or referendum procedure when particular legislation “arouses passionate opposition.” Id., at 395 (concurring opinion). Had Akron‘s fair housing ordinance been defeated at a referendum, for example, “Negroes would undoubtedly [have lost] an important political battle, but they would not thereby [have been] denied equal protection.” Id., at 394.
Initiative 350, however, works something more than the “mere repeal” of a desegregation law by the political entity that created it. It burdens all future attempts to integrate Washington schools in districts throughout the State, by lodging decisionmaking authority over the question at a new and remote level of government. Indeed, the initiative, like the charter amendment at issue in Hunter, has its most pernicious effect on integration programs that do ”not arouse extraordinary controversy.” Id., at 396 (emphasis in original). In such situations the initiative makes the enactment of racially beneficial legislation difficult, though the particular program involved might not have inspired opposition hаd it been promulgated through the usual legislative processes
IV
In the end, appellants are reduced to suggesting that Hunter has been effectively overruled by more recent decisions of this Court. As they read it, Hunter applied a simple “disparate impact” analysis: it invalidated a facially neutral ordinance because of the law‘s adverse effects upon racial minorities. Appellants therefore contend that Hunter was swept away, along with the disparate-impact approach to equal protection, in Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229 (1976), and Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U. S. 252 (1977). Cf. James v. Valtierra, 402 U. S. 137 (1971).
Appellants unquestionably are correct when they suggest that “purposeful discrimination is ‘the condition that offends the Constitution,‘” Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U. S., at 274, quoting Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U. S. 1, 16 (1971), for the “central purpose of the Equal Protection Clause . . . is the prevention of official conduct discriminating on the basis of race.” Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S., at 239. Thus, when facially neutral legislation is subjected to
There is one immediate and crucial difference between Hunter and the cases cited by appellants. While decisions such as Washington v. Davis and Arlington Heights considered classifications facially unrelated to race, the charter amendment at issue in Hunter dealt in explicitly racial terms with legislation designed to benefit minorities “as minоrities,” not legislation intended to benefit some larger group of underprivileged citizens among whom minorities were disproportionately represented. This does not mean, of course, that every attempt to address a racial issue gives rise to an impermissible racial classification. See Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education, post, p. 527. But when the political process or the decisionmaking mechanism used to address racially conscious legislation—and only such legislation—is singled out for peculiar and disadvantageous treatment, the governmental action plainly “rests on ‘distinctions based on race.‘”29 James v. Valtierra, 402 U. S., at
Hunter recognized the considerations addressed above, and it therefore rested on a principle that has been vital for over a century—that “the core of the Fourteenth Amendment is the prevention of meaningful and unjustified official distinctions based on race.” 393 U. S., at 391. Just such distinctions infected the reallocation of decisionmaking authority considered in Hunter, for minorities are no less powerless with the vote than without it when a racial criteriоn is used to assign governmental power in such a way as to exclude particular racial groups “from effective participation in the political proces[s].” Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U. S., at 94 (WHITE, J., dissenting). Certainly, a state requirement that “desegregation or antidiscrimination laws,” Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education, post, at 539, and only such
V
In reaching this conclusion, we do not undervalue the magnitude of the State‘s interest in its system of education. Washington could have reserved to state officials the right to make all decisions in the areas of education and student assignment. It has chosen, however, to use a more elaborate system; having done so, the State is obligated to operate that system within the confines of the Fourteenth Amendment. That, we believe, it has failed to do.31
Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
The people of the State of Washington, by a two-to-one vote, have adopted a neighborhood school policy. The policy is binding on local school districts but in no way affects the authority of state or federal courts to order school transportation to remedy violations of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nor does the policy affect the power of local sсhool districts to establish voluntary transfer programs for racial integration or for any other purpose.
In the absence of a constitutional violation, no decision of this Court compels a school district to adopt or maintain a mandatory busing program for racial integration.1 Accordingly, the Court does not hold that the adoption of a neighborhood school policy by local school districts would be unconstitutional. Rather, it holds that the adoption of such a
I dissent from the Court‘s unprecedented intrusion into the structure of a state government. The School Districts in this case were under no federal constitutional obligation to adopt mandatory busing programs. The State of Washington, the governmental body ultimately responsible for the provision of public education, has determined that certain mandatory busing programs are detrimental to the education of its children. “[T]he Fourteenth Amendment leaves the States free to distribute the powers of government as they will between their legislative and judicial branches.” Hughes v. Superior Court, 339 U. S. 460, 467 (1950). In my view, that Amendment leaves the States equally free to decide matters of concern to the State at the state, rather than local, level of government.
I
At the November 1978 general election, the voters of the State adopted Initiative 350 by a two-to-one majority.2 The Initiative sets forth a neighborhood school policy binding on local school districts. It establishes a general rule prohibiting school districts from “directly or indirectly requir[ing] any student to attend a school other than the school which is geographically nearest or next nearest the student‘s plаce of residence.”
The Initiative includes two significant limitations upon the scope of its neighborhood school policy. It expressly provides that nothing in the Initiative shall “preclude the establishment of schools offering specialized or enriched educational programs which students may voluntarily choose to attend, or of any other voluntary option offered to students.”
This suit was filed in United States District Court shortly after the Initiative was enacted. The Seattle School District, joined by the Tacoma and Pasco School Districts4 and certain individual plaintiffs, argued that the Initiative violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The District Court agreed, and, in a split decision, the Court of Appeals affirmed. Relying on Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U. S. 385 (1969), the Court of Appeals concluded that Initiative 350 “both creates a constitutionally-suspect racial classification and radically restructures the po-
II
The principles that should guide us in reviewing the constitutionality of Initiative 350 are well established. To begin with, we have never held, or even intimated, that absent a federal constitutional violation, a State must choose to treat persons differently on the basis of race. In the absence of a federal constitutional violation requiring race-specific remedies, a policy of strict racial neutrality by a State would violate no federal constitutional principle. Cf. University of California Regents v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265 (1978).
In particular, a neighborhood school policy and a decision not to assign students on the basis of their race, does not offend the Fourteenth Amendment.6 The Court has never
Moreover, it is a well-established principle that the States have “extraordinarily wide latitude . . . in creating various types of political subdivisions and conferring authority upon them.” Holt Civic Club v. Tuscaloosa, 439 U. S. 60, 71 (1978).7 The Constitution does not dictate to the States a
Thus, a State may choose to run its schools from the state legislature or through local school boards just as it may choose to address the matter of race relations at the statе or local level. There is no constitutional requirement that the State establish or maintain local institutions of government or that it delegate particular powers to these bodies. The only relevant constitutional limitation on a State‘s freedom to order its political institutions is that it may not do so in a fashion designed to “plac[e] special burdens on racial minorities within the governmental process.” Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U. S., at 391 (emphasis added).
In sum, in the absence of a prior constitutional violation, the States are under no constitutional duty to adopt integration programs in their schools, and certainly they are under no duty to establish a regime of mandatory busing. Nor does the Federal Constitution require that particular decisions concerning the schools or any other matter be made on the local as opposed to the state level. It does not require the States to establish local governmental bodies or to delegate unreviewable authority to them.
III
Application of these settled principles demonstrates the serious error of today‘s decision—an error that cuts deeply into the heretofore unquestioned right of a State to structure the decisionmaking authority of its government. In this case, by
The issue here arises only because the Seattle School District—in the absence of a then-established state policy—chose to adоpt race-specific school assignments with extensive busing. It is not questioned that the District itself, at any time thereafter, could have changed its mind and canceled its integration program without violating the Federal Constitution. Yet this Court holds that neither the legislature nor the people of the State of Washington could alter what the District had decided.
The Court argues that the people of Washington by Initiative 350 created a racial classification, and yet must agree that identical action by the Seattle School District itself would have created no such classification. This is not an easy argument to answer because it seems to make no sense. School boards are the creation of supreme state authority, whether in a State Constitution or by legislative enactment. Until today‘s decision no one would have questioned the authority of a State to abolish school boards altogether, or to require that they conform to any lawful state policy. And in the State of Washington, a neighborhood school policy would have been lawful.
Under today‘s decision this heretofore undoubted supreme authority of a State‘s electorate is to be curtailed whenever a school board—or indeed any other state board or local instrumentality—adopts a race-specific program that arguably benefits racial minorities. Once such a program is adopted,
This is certainly not a case where a State—in moving to change a locally adopted policy—has established a racially discriminatory requirement. Initiative 350 does not impede enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment. If a Washington school district should be found to have established a segregated school system, Initiative 350 will place no barrier in the way of a remedial busing order. Nor does Initiative 350 authorize or approve segregation in any form or degree. It is neutral on its face, and racially neutral as public policy. Children of all races benefit from neighborhood schooling, just as children of all races benefit from exposure to “‘ethnic and racial diversity in the classroom.‘” Ante, at 472, quoting Columbus Board of Education v. Penick, 443 U. S. 449, 486 (1979) (POWELL, J., dissenting).9
Finally, Initiative 350 places no “special burdens on racial minorities within the governmental process,” Hunter v.
The political рrocess in Washington, as in other States, permits persons who are dissatisfied at a local level to appeal to the state legislature or the people of the State for redress. It permits the people of a State to pre-empt local policies, and to formulate new programs and regulations. Such a process is inherent in the continued sovereignty of the States. This is our system. Any time a State chooses to address a major issue some persons or groups may be disadvantaged. In a democratic system there are winners and losers. But there is no inherent unfairness in this and certainly no constitutional violation.10
IV
Nonetheless, the Court holds that Initiative 350 “imposes substantial and unique burdens on racial minorities” in the governmental process. See ante, at 470. Its authority for
Nothing in Hunter supports the Court‘s extraordinary invasion into the State‘s distribution of authority. Even could it be assumed that Initiative 350 imposed a burden on racial minorities,12 it simply does not place unique political obstacles in the way of racial minorities. In this case, unlikе in
Hunter, therefore, is simply irrelevant. It is the Court that by its decision today disrupts the normal course of State government.14 Under its unprecedented theory of a vested
We are not asked to decide the wisdom of a state policy that limits the ability of local school districts to adopt—on their own volition—mandatory reassignments for racial balance. We must decide only whether the Federal Constitution permits the State to adopt such a policy. The School Districts in this case were under no federal constitutional obligation to adopt mandatory busing. Absent such an obligation, the State—exercising its sovereign authority over all subordinate agencies—should be free to reject this debatable restriction on liberty. But today‘s decision denies this right to a State. In this case, it deprives the State of Washington of all opportunity to address the unresolved questions resulting from extensive mandatory busing.16 The Constitution does not dictate to the States at what level of government de-
Notes
See Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U. S. 1, 28 (1971) (“Absent a constitutional violation there would be no basis for judicially ordering assignment of students on a racial basis. All things being equal, with no history of discrimination, it might well be desirable to assign pupils to schools nearest their homes“).
Indeed, in the absence of a finding of segregation by the School District, mandatory busing on the basis of race raises constitutional difficulties of its own. Extensive pupil transportation may threaten liberty or privacy interests. See University of California Regents v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265, 300, n. 39 (1978) (opinion of POWELL, J.); Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colo., 413 U. S. 189, 240-250 (1973) (POWELL, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Moreover, when a State or school board assigns students on the basis of their race, it acts on the basis of a racial classification, and we have consistently held that “[a] racial classification, regardless of purported motivation, is presumptively invalid and can be upheld only upon an extraordinary justification.” Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U. S. 256, 272 (1979).
It is far from clear that in the absence of a constitutional violation, mandatory busing necessarily benefits racial minorities or that it is even viewed with favor by racial minorities. See Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education, post, at 545, n. 32. As the Court indicates, the busing question is complex and is best resolved by the political process. Ante, at 474.
Moreover, it is significant that Initiative 350 places no limits on voluntary programs or on court-ordered reassignments. It permits school districts to order school closings for purposes of racial balance.
Even accepting the dubious notion that a State must demonstrate some past control over public schooling or race relations before now intervening in these matters, ante, at 477, the Court‘s attempt to demonstrate that Initiative 350 represents a unique thrust by the State into these areas is unpersuasive. The Court‘s own discussion indicates the comprehensive character of the State‘s activity. The Common School Provisions of the State‘s Code of Laws are nearly 200 pages long, governing a broad variety of school matters. The State has taken seriously its constitutional obligation to provide public education. See
In addition to public school affairs generally, the State has taken a direct interest in ending racial discrimination in the schools and elsewhere. See
Responding to this dissent, the Court denies that its opinion limits the authority of the people of the State of Washington and the legislature to control or regulate school boards. It further states that “the State remains free to vest all decisionmaking power in state officials, or to remove authority from local school boards in a race-neutral manner.” Ante, at 480, n. 23. These are puzzling statements that seem entirely at odds with much of thе text of the Court‘s opinion. It will be surprising if officials of the State of Washington—with the one exception mentioned below—will have any clear idea as to what the State now lawfully may do.
The Court does say that “[i]t is the State‘s race-conscious restructuring of its decisionmaking process that is impermissible, not the simple repeal of the Seattle Plan.” Ante, at 485-486, n. 29. Apparently the Court is saying that, despite what else may be said in its opinion, the people of the State—or the state legislature—may repeal the Seattle Plan, even though neither the people nor the legislature validly may prescribe statewide standards. I perceive no logic in—and certainly no constitutional basis for—a distinction between repealing the Seattle Plan of mandatory busing and establishing a statewide policy to the same effect. The people of a State have far greater interest in the general problems associated with compelled busing for the purpose of integration than in the plan of a single school board.
The Court noted in Hunter that Akron “might have proceeded by majority vote . . . on all its municipal legislation,” 393 U. S., at 392; the charter amendment was invalidated because the citizens of Akron did not reserve all power to themselves, but rather distributed it in a nonneutral manner. In Lee, of course, the State had unquestioned authority to vest all power over education in state officials. been questioned at any point during this litigation. The single narrow question before us is whether the State has exercised its power in such a way as to place special, and therefore impermissible, burdens on minority interests.
The United States makes only one attempt to distinguish Lee in this regard: Lee is inapposite, the United States maintains, because the statute at issue there “blocked desegregation efforts even by ‘a school district subject to a pre-existing order to eliminate segregation in its schools,‘” and therefore—purportedly in contrast to Initiative 350—“interfere[d] with the efforts of individual school districts to eliminate de jure segregation.” Brief for United States 25, quoting Lee v. Nyquist, 318 F. Supp., at 715. If by this statement the United States seeks to place the District Court‘s holding and this Court‘s affirmance in Lee on the ground that the New York statute interfered with Buffalo‘s attempts to eliminate de jure segregation, its submission is simply inaccurate. At the time of the Lee litigation, Buffalo had not been found guilty of practicing intentional segregation. See Arthur v. Nyquist, 573 F. 2d 134, 137 (CA2 1978). As the United States notes, Buffalo was under a “pre-existing order to eliminate segregation in its schools“—but that order was issued by the New York Commissioner of Education, because he had found Buffalo‘s schools de facto segregated. Appeal of Dixon, 4 N. Y. Educ. Dept. Reports 115 (1965). See Lee v. Nyquist, 318 F. Supp., at 714-715. Lee did not concern de jure segregation; it is to be explained only as a straightforward application of the Hunter doctrine.