FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2007
Davis Wright Tremaine Partner Wins
at Supreme Court
Decision
Favors Parents in School Discrimination Case
SEATTLE, WASH., JUNE 28, 2007—National law
firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP (DWT) secured another win at the
U.S. Supreme Court today as the justices ruled in favor of the plaintiffs
in Parents Involved in Community Schools (“Parents”)
v. Seattle School District.
Since the initial suit was filed in 2000, a team of DWT attorneys,
led by partner Harry
Korrell of the firm’s Seattle office, represented Parents
through seven years of litigation that included arguments in the
federal trial and appellate courts (including three arguments to
the Ninth Circuit, one en banc), the Washington State Supreme
Court, and in December of last year, the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today’s landmark decision adopted Parents’ argument
that the government’s desire for a particular racial balance
does not justify race discrimination and that a local school board
cannot assign students to public schools based on their race, absent
the need to remedy past discrimination by that school board.
“This case was about protecting all children - regardless
of skin color - from race discrimination,” said lead attorney
Harry Korrell. “The parents are very pleased with the Court’s
decision. Despite all the attention this case has received, it has
often been overlooked that Seattle’s race preference denied
minority children, as well as white children, admission to their
chosen schools and that the parent association includes both white
and minority families.” According to Korrell, “the Court
adopted the Parents’ argument that absent the need to remedy
past discrimination, the government should not be allowed to make
school admissions decisions about people based on their membership
in a racial class. The Supreme Court today affirmed this bedrock
principle of our republic and requires school officials to stop
defining students by their skin color. School districts around the
country should now focus on improving how and what they teach all
children.”
In addition to today’s win, DWT's appellate group recently
garnered wide acclaim for successfully arguing and winning two landmark
Supreme Court cases in the 2003-04 Term. Firm partner Jeff Fisher argued and won in both Crawford v. Washington and Blakely v.
Washington. In addition, DWT lawyers have recently represented
clients — parties and amici curiae — in numerous matters
before the U.S. Supreme Court, including in Deborah Morse, et
al. v. Joseph Frederick, 2007 WL 1804317 (2007); John Cunningham
v. The State of California, 127 S. Ct. 856 (2007); Salim
Ahmed Hamdan v. Donald H. Rumsfeld, et al., 126 S.CT. 2749
(2006); US v. Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez-Lopez, 126 S. Ct. 2557
(2006); Adrian Martell Davis v. Washington, 126 S. Ct.
2266 (2006), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd.,
125 S. Ct. 2764 (2006). Click
here for more information on DWT’s appellate practice.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national business and litigation
law firm with more than 480 attorneys in nine offices: Seattle and
Bellevue (Wash.), Portland (Ore.), Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
York, Washington, D.C., Anchorage (Alaska) and Shanghai, China.
For the text of the Court’s decision visit www.supremecourtus.gov.
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CONTACT:
Harry Korrell
Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine
(206) 757-8080, harrykorrell@dwt.com
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