Red Line for Civil Rights, a Democracy Forward project, found that the Justice Department (DOJ) joined dismissal stipulations in at least 18 school districts without asking judges to find unitary status.
The term describes whether a district has done as much as practicable to undo the remaining effects of past discrimination in areas still under court supervision. Red Line’s review covers transportation, facilities and extracurricular activities, plus student assignment, faculty assignment and staff assignment as separate categories. The framework draws on Supreme Court rulings including Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Green v. County School Board (1968).
Red Line identified DOJ actions involving at least 56 districts in 12 states since Jan. 20, 2025. It counted support for ending cases, moves to withdraw and decisions not to oppose dismissals. The project located electronic court dockets for 85 of 132 districts on a DOJ list from May 2024. It said some filings are unavailable online and that its tally is still being updated. Its public review does not establish whether DOJ made separate internal assessments of unitary status in each district or what evidence it relied on.
DOJ said on Sept. 24 that it had ended more than 50 desegregation cases and would seek dismissal after concluding a district had achieved unitary status. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the closures would let districts “redirect taxpayer dollars back to benefitting students.” Red Line argues that court oversight gives students and families a way to assess whether past discrimination has been addressed. CBS News reported that it sought DOJ comment on Red Line’s findings; its Oct. 22 report included no agency response.
The dispute over court review is illustrated by Concordia Parish, Louisiana. The United States, the School Board of Concordia Parish and Delta Charter Group, Incorporated, jointly filed a dismissal stipulation on Aug. 15, 2025. A district court scheduled evidentiary hearings on unitary status. On July 14, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the stipulation had ended the case under Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and ordered the district court to vacate its ruling and the order setting the hearings. The majority did not decide whether Concordia had achieved unitary status. Circuit Judge Carl E. Stewart, who concurred in part and dissented in part, wrote, “Concordia Parish has not yet been declared unitary.”
An Oct. 8 court order gives the Sumter County Board of Education until Thursday, Oct. 29, to tell the court whether it opposes a joint motion to dismiss.
