Judging Where the Bus Can Stop

Across the U.S., few issues have caused more bitterness than, or led to such disagreements over means vs. ends as, the court-ordered busing of students to end patterns of racial discrimination. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there were at least some limits beyond which busing need not go. By a 5- to-3 vote, the Justices decided that school systems could be freed from judicially mandated plans if they have "complied in good faith" with the desegregation order and eliminated the "vestiges of past discrimination . . . to the extent practicable." The ruling effectively put the delicate issue...