THE EXPERT WITNESS IN UNITARY HEARINGS - THE 6 GREEN FACTORS AND SPATIAL-DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE

Brown v. Board of Education was conceived in a rime of judicial activi sm and a demographic context that reflected two nations, one white and one black. Forty years after Brown, the legal climate and the demogra phic composition of the United States are quite different. The 1990s a re judicially conservative and the cities in particular are more diver se demographically. The intersection of a restrained court and fundame ntal demographic shifts has changed the agenda and raised issues of ho w to proceed toward the continuing objective of societal integration. Recent court decisions about unitary status and the return to local co ntrol have directed attention to the clash between spatial demographic change and legal intervention. Geography and demography have modified the effect of Brown and the potential for future judicial interventio n in school systems. Whatever our ideological perspective, the interse ction of geography and demography, and individual responses to legal a ction, clearly have limited the possibilities of change through legal intervention.