High Court Refuses Case on State School Race Bias

The Supreme Court sidestepped a dispute Tuesday over whether Mississippi has done enough to desegregate state-supported colleges and universities--an issue the Justice Department said the court may need to reconsider.

The justices turned down an appeal by black residents who say a revised college-admission plan and a long-standing funding formula have left in place remnants of the old segregated system.

“How can there be choice between massively superior former all-white universities with vast resources and formerly all-black colleges without such basic necessities as showers, heat, air conditioning and decent roofs?” the appeal said.

Justice Department lawyers had advised the justices to reject the appeal because further issues remain to be resolved by a lower court. But government lawyers also said the nation’s highest court may need to review the case.

Government lawyers said a lower-court ruling in the case, if it remains intact, “will have serious adverse consequences for the educational opportunities of African American students in Mississippi.”

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that Mississippi must do more to desegregate its colleges and universities than simply let whites and blacks attend the schools of their choice.

But the justices left it to lower courts to determine exactly what remedy to require.

Mississippi began desegregating its state-run colleges under court order in 1962, when James Meredith was admitted to the University of Mississippi.

The high court also turned down an Arizona Indian tribe’s challenge of a state tax on the revenue of a hotel on its reservation. The hotel is owned by the Yavapai-Prescott tribe but operated by a private corporation.

The justices also refused to reinstate a $452,000 award won, and then lost, by a woman who was sexually assaulted by a Florida policeman. A lower court said the town of Lake Hamilton could not be held responsible for the officer’s actions.