October 19, 2004

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert in Ayers v. Thompson, 358 F.3d 356 (5th Cir. 2004), thus ending the long-runnning desegregation suit (originally filed in 1975) involving the state of Mississippi's college and university system. The Court rebuffed a challenge to the settlement of the suit that had been mounted by a splinter group of the plaintiff class. The settlement, negotiated in 2000-01, calls for the state government to spend an additional $503 million on the three historically black campuses in the state higher ed system, over and above their annual state appropriation -- over a multi-year period. The plaintiffs' attorneys' fees called for in the settlement are capped at $2.5 million. Further details of the settlement are available in the Fifth Circuit opinion cited above, and in Riva Brown, "'75 Ayers suit officially ends; high court won't hear appeal," Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Oct. 19.