Detroit

The following article appeared in the Free Press on Feb. 28, 1974.

Justice William J. Brennan asked: "What happens if a school system finds itself with more students than it has budgeted for?" And Justice White asked if suburban Detroit taxpayers can "fairly be taxed to pay the expenses of the desegregation of Detroit?"

Nathaniel R. Jones, general counsel of the NAACP, responded to both questions by saying those were issues Judge Roth would have to consider in ordering any particular integration plan. Jones and J. Harold Flannery, who also argued for the NAACP, said repeatedly that there is no integration order and the court faces only the question of whether a school integration order must stop at the Detroit city limits.

A similar position was taken by U.S. Solicitor General Robert Bork, who argued that a school integration plan limited to Detroit would be the proper solution for the segregation Judge Roth found. A metropolitan plan "is so disproportionate to the violation that it is an impermissible exercise of judicial power," Bork said.

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