How the Supreme Court thinks about race: More than fifty years after Brown

More than fifty-five years after the Supreme Court overruled the doctrine of 'separate but equal' in Brown v. the Board of Education (1954), many American schools are becoming increasingly segregated by race. At the same time, judicial support for race-conscious school policies that seek to racially integrate students is fading. I use grounded theory research methods to examine the court's thinking on this matter in the Supreme Court opinion of Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District (2007). My analysis finds that opposition to race-conscious assignment is guided by colorblind thinking which holds that race no longer matters or is loosely tied to opportunity. On the other hand, justices who support race-conscious remedies see race as a partial predictor of life chances. Justices on both sides of the issue rely upon competing interpretations of the 14th Amendment, Brown, and the nature of racism to justify their positions.