This article traces the history of census undercount and its importance to civil rights. The Constitution mandates a census and calls for Congress to use the results to apportion seats in Congress and the Electoral College. A substantial undercount in the census will misallocate congressional and electoral college votes. More recently,…

Today, our schools are more racially segregated than at any time in the last 40 years, mainly because the neighborhoods in which they are located are themselves racially segregated. Yet, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2007 Parents Involved ruling, prohibited school districts from implementing even modest race-conscious desegregation plans. If…

The enduring condition of racial and ethnic segregation in schools and housing in metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut, is rooted in historical and contemporary racial discrimination and in practices and policies that exacted disparate harm on Black and Latinx people. School segregation both reflects and reinforces segregation in housing that was…

In this study, I employ geospatial techniques to assess the impact of school attendance zone "gerrymandering" on the racial/ethnic segregation of schools, using a large national sample of 15,290 attendance zones in 663 districts. I estimate the effect of gerrymandering on school diversity and school district segregation by comparing the…

Background: This article examines the contemporary implications of the "Milliken v. Bradley" (1974) decision for educational inequality between school districts in U.S. metropolitan areas. We focus upon four metropolitan areas that were highly segregated in the 1970s but which met different fates in court: We first examine Detroit and…

The National Coalition on School Diversity has updated this review of federal support for school integration during the tenures of Secretaries Arne Duncan and John King, who both served during the Obama Administration. While much remains to be done, the Obama Administration has made concrete progress on school integration policy. This overview…

This manual was written to help guide education stakeholders--including parents, students, school board members, community activists, administrators, policymakers and attorneys--in their efforts to promote racial diversity and avoid racial isolation in suburban school systems. Critical information on the current legal, political and policy issues…

Detailed analyses of three Supreme Court cases dealing with the First Amendment that are awaiting oral argument are provided. The cases are Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Philadelphia Newspaper, Inc. v. Hepps, and city of Renton v. Playtime Theaters, Inc. (RM)

Included in the booklet on mental retardation and the law are reports on 11 new court cases and updated information on 35 court cases reported in previous issues. Court cases cover the following issues: architectural barriers, commitment, criminal law, education, employment, guardianship, protection from harm, sterilization, treatment, and zoning.…

At the University of Southern California solar-access design research project, Barry Knowles and students have devised a solar envelope: the largest volumetric container over a land parcel that allows solar access to all adjacent neighbors within useful time constraints. (Author/MLF)

The author notes that controversies over construction bids and contracts continue to represent the largest number of property cases reported in this year's chapter. Most of these cases are routine disputes between colleges or universities and contractors over such issues as the return of bid bonds, recovery of additional costs for construction…

An Illinois school district leased a vacant school building to a local hospital, and was then ruled by the county tax office to have lost the building's tax-exempt status and to owe property taxes. Districts interested in leasing school property are advised to hire an attorney who specializes in real estate. (MLF)

A review of cases involving higher education property matters shows that many are concerned with building construction, equipment installation, or repair contracts. A number of other cases involve routine conflicts between colleges or universities and other governmental entities over matters such as requests for special exceptions to zoning…

Reflecting widespread unhappiness with the growing tax burdens in this country, the most active area of litigation reported in the property chapter this year involves various attempts by taxpayers to prevent the construction or remodeling of public school facilities. While some taxpayers fought to keep schools from being built, others in New York…

A number of cases related to property issues involving institutions of higher education are examined in this chapter. Cases discussed touch on such topics as funding for property and equipment acquisition; opposition to building construction or demolition; zoning issues; building construction and equipment contracts; and lease agreements. Current…