Burger Court

Issues of Race and Disability

The Burger Court was involved with several racial discrimination cases focused on affirmative action, de facto segregation, and institutional racism. In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), the justices permitted court-ordered busing to combat segregated schools. In addition, the Burger Court found a school busing program to be constitutional in Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado (1973). However, in Milliken v. Bradley (1974), the Court limited its remedial power in desegregation cases when it found multidistrict remedies to be unconstitutional.

In addition to segregation cases, the Court decided a high-profile affirmative action case. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Court held that affirmative action in university admissions can be justified by the importance of classroom diversity but set limits on how it could be implemented. In another higher education case, the Burger Court upheld the Internal Revenue Service's plan to deny tax-exempt status to private schools that practiced [Page 137]racial discrimination in student admissions plans (Bob Jones University v. United States, 1983).

Additionally, the Burger Court authored opinions involving race and equal employment opportunity law that have been relied upon in some education-related arguments. In Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) and in Fullilove v. Klutznick (1980), the Court affirmed that Congress could use racial and ethnic criteria, as long as these criteria were used in a limited way, in a federal grant program.

The Court decided two important special education cases. In Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley (1982), the Court ruled that a free appropriate education requires school boards to provide individualized instruction with adequate support services to ensure that every child receives an “educational benefit” from the program. In Irving Independent School District v. Tatro (1984), the Court was of the opinion that public school boards must provide catheterization because it fell within the definition of related services.

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