Officials want Lynn school case kept closed

Massachusetts and local school officials on Tuesday urged a federal judge in Boston not to reopen a public school integration case involving Lynn, MA, arguing that the Supreme Court’s school decision on June 28 involved quite different race-based student assignment policies. The effort to reopen the case of Comfort v. Lynn School Committee (District Court dockets 99-11811 and 01-10365) was discussed in this post on July 5. The opposing memorandum by the state and the Lynn School Committee can be found here.

The state and local officials argued that only one student who challenged the Lynn plan is still in school there, and that child has been allowed to attend the school of his choice. He would not be affected by the Lynn assignment plan in which race is used, because race is a factor only in considering transfers, and there is no indication that the student wants to transfer or has been denied a transfer. Thus, even if the case were reopened, he would not be affected, the memorandum contended.

By contrast, the document asserted, reopening the case would “impose considerable disruption and harm on the city and residents of Lynn.” The city had previously faced a “crisis” of racial intolerance, and the school transfer plan was “carefully crafted” to meet that problem, using both race-neutral and race-conscious components.

Moreover, the officials argued that the prior ruling in favor of the Lynn plan was “an outright judgment” in favor of that plan, and also did not involve a consent decree or injunction, and thus it is not the type of decision that would qualify for reopening under federal court rules.

Merely because the Supreme Court ruled against the Seattle and Louisville, Ky., student assignment plans, the filing suggested, does not mean that this would require a District Court to alter its final judgment in a prior case. The Supreme Court in its June 28 decision did not overrule any precedent upon which the Boston District Court relied in upholding Lynn’s plan, the officials said.