New Jersey Appeals Court Hears School Segregation Suit

A New Jersey appeals court heard arguments in an eight-year-old lawsuit alleging that state policies, especially the rule requiring students to attend school in their home districts, perpetuate unconstitutional racial segregation. The plaintiffs, including the Latino Action Network and the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, urged the court to hold the state responsible and move the case toward a remedy; they cite enrollment data showing hundreds of thousands of Black and Latino students attending overwhelmingly nonwhite schools. The state argues that enrollment figures alone do not prove a constitutional violation and that conditions in individual districts require closer examination. The appeals panel questioned whether the case could be resolved without a trial and did not rule, leaving open the possibility of siding with either party or returning the case to a lower court.