1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

this court has first determined that its orders are in fact being violated
or circumvented.
The court also said that Congress had refused in the past to authorize
the Attorney General to initiate school desegregation cases, hence granting
such permission would be "contrary to the intent of Congress." 68
THE NEW ROCHELLE CASE
The New Rochelle case 69 falls in the established pattern of amicus participation
by the United States on court invitation. Participation in
this case, however, was to assist the court in an area previously handled
by the judiciary and local school boards—the formulation of a school
desegregation plan.
Negro plaintiffs had filed the suit to enjoin the building of a new
school on the site of the 93 percent Negro Lincoln school in New
Rochelle, and for the desegregation of the present Lincoln school. 70
(The case is discussed in detail in Chapter 7.)
The district court found that the proposed new school was part of
an established school board program to maintain racial segregation. 71
It ordered the board to present a desegregation plan and, finding the
submitted plan unsatisfactory, asked for the advice of the Attorney
General as amicus curiae. In its "notice re intervention of amicus
curiae" the court stated: 72
In the light of the interest which the Department of Justice has
expressed in the implementation of Federal court decrees requiring
desegregation, and to assure that the processes of this court will be
fully respected and complied with, the court requests the Department
of Justice to file a brief as amicus curiae.
The court is desirous of expert assistance with respect to the
formulation of the final decree, and specifically in determining
whether the plan submitted by the majority members . . . would
bring compliance with the principles of the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution.
The entry of the United States into the case apparently was not opposed
by the school board.
The United States submitted a brief in which it disapproved the plan
proposed by the majority of the school board, advised against a stay of
the execution of the desegregation order and suggested "guidelines" for
164