MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday it has ended more than 50 school desegregation cases across the country, including three involving Alabama school systems, as the department moves to close out federal court oversight that in some districts dates to the 1960s.
The announcement from the department’s Civil Rights Division, led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, drew quick praise from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and from his chief counsel, Katherine Robertson, the Republican nominee to succeed him. Robertson had called for an end to the long-running school desegregation orders in an opinion piece published in March.
Civil rights lawyers who have represented Black families in the Alabama cases for decades have taken a different view, arguing that the court orders remain a remedy for discrimination rather than a burden on schools.
What the Justice Department Announced
In its Sept. 24 announcement, the department said it had ended more than 50 desegregation cases that were filed decades ago in connection with the operation of racially separate, or “dual,” school systems. The dismissed cases stretch from Waterbury, Connecticut, to Flagler County, Florida, according to the department.
Dhillon framed the move as an overdue step for districts that have lived under federal court supervision for generations.
“In this administration, we are ending prolonged federal oversight of these school districts because the effort does not reflect the reality of those classrooms today,” Dhillon said in a statement. “In some cases, school districts have been under federal control for more than 60 years. Now these local school districts can redirect taxpayer dollars back to benefiting students, instead of funding onerous and outdated consent decrees.”
The department said it is conducting a case-by-case review of the school desegregation cases still pending in federal courts, many of which were filed in the 1960s and 1970s. When it concludes that a district has achieved what courts call “unitary status,” the department said, it will seek dismissal of the case.
At a glance
- What: The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division ended more than 50 decades-old school desegregation cases nationwide.
- When: Announced Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.
- Alabama impact: Three orders involving Alabama school systems, according to Attorney General Steve Marshall. Districts in Tuscumbia, Tarrant and St. Clair County have been identified among them.
- Other states: Dismissed cases range from Connecticut to Florida and include districts in Mississippi and Tennessee.
- What’s next: The department says its case-by-case review of remaining desegregation cases will continue.
Alabama Officials Respond
Marshall, a Republican who has served as attorney general since 2017, thanked Dhillon’s office on social media after the announcement and signaled that his office wants more Alabama orders lifted.
“Thank you to @AAGDhillon and her team for working with us to end three outdated orders. This is just the beginning. We will keep working until every school district in Alabama is free from unnecessary consent decrees,” Marshall wrote.
Robertson, who has served as Marshall’s chief counsel since 2017, replied to his post: “Yeah, we will! @AAGDhillon and her team are fantastic partners!”
The Justice Department’s announcement did not list every affected district. A map Dhillon shared on social media appeared to highlight several Alabama counties, and Tuscumbia City Schools, Tarrant City Schools and St. Clair County Schools have been identified as the Alabama systems whose cases were closed. Other districts named among the dismissals include Rankin County, Mississippi, and Dyersburg, Tennessee.
Robertson’s March Op-Ed
Robertson, who won the Republican nomination for attorney general in a June 16 runoff against Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell, raised the issue months before the federal action. In an opinion piece published in March, she argued that the orders do harm to students today.
“As a practical matter, this mandated discrimination hurts students,” she wrote. “Watered-down gifted programs force high-achieving students to compete for placements based on their appearance, rather than their talents or work ethic. Students suffer, too, when teachers are hired because they check the right racial box rather than for their ability to teach. If students who prevent others from learning by disrupting class are not disciplined, the ones who are well-behaved pay the price. It is hard to believe that federal judges could find this acceptable in 2026.”
She also cited the U.S. Supreme Court, writing that “the high court has stated clearly that ‘racial discrimination in public education is unconstitutional,’ particularly when preferences based on skin color have ‘no end … in sight.'” That language echoes the court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities.
Robertson faces Democrat Jeffrey McLaughlin, a Guntersville attorney, in the Nov. 3 general election. Marshall is not seeking another term as attorney general.
The Other Side of the Argument
Civil rights attorneys see the orders very differently. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which, along with the law firm of Montgomery civil rights attorney Fred Gray, has long represented Black families in Alabama’s school cases, has argued that the court orders are not racial quotas. Instead, the group has said, the orders exist to address discrimination and lingering disparities in areas such as student discipline, access to advanced classes and the hiring of Black teachers and administrators.
Supporters of continued oversight also point out that federal courts, not the Justice Department alone, decide when a case ends. Under long-standing Supreme Court precedent, a district must show a judge that it has complied in good faith with its desegregation order and has eliminated the remnants of past segregation as far as practicable. Local plaintiffs can, and in the past often have, contested whether a district has met that bar.
The Alabama cases have also surfaced in recent years in disputes that had little to do with the original 1960s litigation. Federal judges overseeing the orders have weighed in on matters ranging from new school construction to attempts by communities to break away from county systems. In 2018, a federal appeals court blocked the city of Gardendale from forming its own school system apart from Jefferson County Schools, citing the desegregation order that still governed the county.
How Alabama Ended Up With So Many Cases
Alabama has been home to more school desegregation cases than almost any other state, and most of them trace back to a single lawsuit.
In January 1963, Gray filed suit on behalf of Black students, including brothers Anthony and Henry Lee, who had been denied admission to the all-white Tuskegee High School in Macon County. The case, Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, became a showdown with Gov. George Wallace, who used state troopers to delay the integration of schools that fall until President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard.
A three-judge federal panel that included U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. later expanded the case statewide. In March 1967, the court ordered 102 city and county school systems across Alabama to dismantle their segregated systems, setting rules on student assignment and the hiring of Black teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ruling, and the Lee case became a model for desegregation efforts elsewhere in the South.
Over the decades that followed, many Alabama districts were released from court supervision one by one. But dozens remained. As recently as 2024, federal records listed 39 Alabama districts still in active cases, more than any other state, and roughly 44 systems were considered under some form of federal desegregation order or case as of early this year.
Mobile’s own landmark case
The Mobile area has its own place in that history. In 1963, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Birdie Mae Davis and other Black students against the Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously on April 20, 1971, in Davis v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, that the desegregation plan for Mobile County had not used all available remedies and that lower courts needed to do more.
The Davis litigation continued for more than three decades. The case was closed in 1997, when Mobile County’s public school system was released from court supervision. Davis died in 2025 at age 77.
What ‘Unitary Status’ Means
The legal test for ending a desegregation case has been shaped by a series of Supreme Court decisions.
In Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, decided in 1968, the court said school boards had an affirmative duty to eliminate dual systems “root and branch.” Courts since then have looked at six areas, often called the Green factors, to judge a district’s progress:
- Student assignment
- Faculty assignment
- Staff assignment
- Transportation
- Extracurricular activities
- Facilities
In the 1991 case Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell, the court said desegregation decrees were not meant to last forever and could be dissolved once a district had complied in good faith and eliminated the vestiges of past discrimination to the extent practicable. A year later, in Freeman v. Pitts, the justices said courts could return control to a district in stages, releasing it from supervision in some areas while keeping oversight in others.
A district that is declared unitary is freed from the court’s order and returns to full local control, though it remains bound, like every public school system, by federal civil rights law.
The Cost Question
Dhillon’s statement emphasized money, saying districts could now redirect taxpayer dollars to students instead of funding consent decrees. The cost of compliance varies widely. For many small districts, the annual expense of reporting to the court is modest, while some larger systems that have been involved in active litigation have spent far more on legal fees over the years.
Beyond direct costs, district leaders in Alabama have at times said the orders limit their flexibility, requiring court approval for decisions such as drawing attendance zones, building or closing schools, or changing transfer policies. Critics of ending the cases counter that those same review requirements are what give families a way to challenge decisions they believe would lead schools to resegregate.
What Comes Next
The Justice Department has said its review of the remaining cases will continue, and Marshall’s office has signaled it will keep pressing to close out additional Alabama orders.
For families and school officials in districts still under federal supervision, the practical questions will be decided case by case in federal courtrooms. Where the department and a local school board agree that a district has met the legal test, they can ask a judge to end the case. Private plaintiffs represented by civil rights lawyers may still be parties in many of those cases, and they may choose to object.
Parents who want to know whether their own district remains under a desegregation order can ask their local school board or superintendent’s office, which must report to the court as long as the case remains open.