Fred S. Calhoun v. A. C. Latimer
Headline: Court vacates lower-court approval of Atlanta school desegregation plan and sends it back for an evidentiary hearing to test new student assignment and transfer rules affecting Atlanta students.
Holding: The Court vacated the lower court’s approval and remanded for an evidentiary hearing so the District Court can test Atlanta’s new student assignment and transfer rules under the Court’s desegregation standards.
- Sends Atlanta’s desegregation plan back for a full evidentiary hearing.
- Requires District Court to reassess student assignment and transfer rules under federal standards.
- May delay desegregation steps in Atlanta pending further proceedings.
Summary
Background
The dispute involves the Atlanta Board of Education and people who challenged the Board’s school assignment and transfer rules after a lower court approved a desegregation plan. After arguments in this case, the Board adopted a formal April 8, 1964 resolution setting new rules for initial pupil assignments and for allowing transfers in the 1964–1965 school year. The challengers say the resolution still fails constitutional standards and that elementary schools would not be desegregated until the 1970s.
Reasoning
The Court noted the Board’s new resolution and invited the parties to submit supplemental papers about it. Because the plan changed after the lower court approved it, the Supreme Court concluded the District Court should evaluate the new resolution in a proper evidentiary hearing. The Court vacated the prior judgment and sent the case back so the District Court can fully test the entire Atlanta plan using the principles the Court has set out in earlier desegregation decisions.
Real world impact
The immediate effect is procedural: the approved plan is not final and will return to the District Court for further fact-finding and legal testing. Atlanta students’ assignments and transfer rules will be reexamined, and any finding about whether the plan meets constitutional requirements may change what the school board can put into effect. This ruling is not a final decision on the merits; it requires more hearings and factual development before a final outcome is reached.
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