GREGORY-PORTLAND INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT v. UNITED STATES Et Al.

Background

The applicants asked a Justice to put on hold a district court order that required students to be bused within the applicant district. The initial emergency request was sent to the regional Supreme Court Justice for the Fifth Circuit, Mr. Justice Powell, who denied the stay. The request was then resubmitted to Mr. Justice Rehnquist. The opinion notes the Supreme Court has been divided for years about whether busing orders are constitutionally proper.

Reasoning

Justice Rehnquist explains that a single Justice deciding a stay must determine whether at least four Justices would agree to review the case, weigh the practical harms and benefits of pausing the order, and try to predict how the full Court might rule. He says that if he were voting as a Justice on the full case he would likely vote to grant review and would seriously consider reversing the busing order. But because the Circuit Justice had already denied the stay and is more familiar with the situation, Rehnquist is unwilling to second-guess that earlier denial and therefore denies the reapplication for a stay.

Real world impact

Because the stay request was denied, the district court’s busing order remains in effect while the appeal proceeds. The decision is a procedural ruling about an emergency pause, not a final decision on the constitutionality of busing. The broader constitutional dispute could still be taken up later by the full Court for a final ruling.