<i>Missouri v. Jenkins</i> and the de Facto Abandonment of Court-Enforced Desegregation

It has been forty-three years since the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education. In this Article, the author argues that the Court's recent decision, Missouri v. Jenkins, presages the end of court-enforced school desegregation. In addition, Jenkins shows that the Court is unwilling to confront its doctrinal principles in the area, preferring instead to base its decisions on relatively narrow, case-specific grounds. Jenkins therefore reveals that the Court will end this important era in our constitutional history quietly, gradually and without articulating its justifications.

The author also contends that the reasons for curtailing desegregation remedies proffered by Justices Scalia and Thomas in recent concurring opinions, although perhaps more coherent and principled, do not justify the Court's abandonment of court-enforced desegregation.