191340P.pdf   08/25/2021  United States  v.  Arkansas Department of Educ.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  19-1340
                          and No:  19-1342
                          and No:  19-1348
                          and No:  19-1349
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas - El Dorado   
   [PUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Erickson, Melloy and Kobes, Circuit 
   Judges] 
   Civil case - School Desegregation. Four Arkansas school district sought 
   modification of decades-old desegregation orders so that they could be 
   exempt from newly passed amendments to the Arkansas school choice law. The 
   district court granted the motions and modified the desegregation orders 
   to explicitly limit the transfer of students between school districts; the 
   State appealed the modifications, and this court affirmed; the State 
   sought rehearing and the U.S., participating in the case for the first 
   time, asked the court to reconsider the matter; additional briefing was 
   then permitted. Held: The district court erred in finding that the repeal 
   of Arkansas's 1989 school choice act and the subsequent adoption of the 
   2017 amendments to a 2015 act significantly changed Arkansas law in a 
   manner allowing for modification of the consent decrees; because no 
   vestige of discrimination traces back to interdistrict school transfers, 
   the district court abused its discretion in expanding the consent decrees 
   to prohibit such transfers. Judge Melloy, dissenting. 
  
191340P.pdf   12/31/2020  United States  v.  Arkansas Department of Educ.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  19-1340
                          and No:  19-1342
                          and No:  19-1348
                          and No:  19-1349
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas - El Dorado   
   [PUBLISHED] [Erickson, Author, with Melloy and Kobes, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - School Desegregation. Certain Arkansas school districts 
   sought modification of existing school desegregation consent decrees to 
   allow their exemption from Arkansas's Public School Choice Act; the 
   district court granted the motions and modified the consent decrees to 
   explicitly limit the transfer of students between districts; the Arkansas 
   Department of Education appealed, alleging the modifications imposed an 
   impermissible interdistrict remedy. Held: because there was a substantial 
   change in Arkansas law and the circumstances in the districts (white 
   flight) after the consent decrees were enacted and because the district 
   court's modification was not an impermissible interdistrict remedy, the 
   district court's order is affirmed. Judge Kobes, dissenting.