Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson

Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson, 404 U.S. 1215 (1971), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the desegregation of schools in San Francisco.

Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided August 25, 1971
Full case name	Guey Heung Lee, et al. v. David Johnson, et al.
Citations	404 U.S. 1215 (more) 92 S. Ct. 14; 30 L. Ed. 2d 19; 1971 U.S. LEXIS 1458
Case history
Prior	On application for stay pending appeal
Holding
The Court declined to issue a stay of a Federal District Court's order reassigning pupils of Chinese ancestry to elementary public schools in San Francisco.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Case opinion
Majority	Douglas, in chambers

In 1971, the San Francisco Unified School District attempted to desegregate the school system by reassigning pupils attending segregated schools to other public schools. The School District submitted a comprehensive plan for desegregation, which the District Court approved.

Brown v. Board of Education was not written for blacks alone

—Guey Heung v. Johnson

Some Chinese parents protested the move, because in the Asian schools the students could learn about their cultural heritage, and they would lose this if they went to public schools.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit entered a temporary stay pending a hearing in the District Court. Four days later, however, the Court of Appeals vacated that stay sua sponte. The District Court then denied the stay. Thereupon, a different three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals heard oral argument on the motions for a stay, and denied those motions.

The Supreme Court too denied the stay, saying

So far as the overriding questions of law are concerned, the decision of the District Court seems well within bounds. It would take some intervening event or some novel question of law to induce me as Circuit Justice to overrule the considered action of my Brethren of the Ninth Circuit.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 404
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

External links

• Text of Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson, 404 U.S. 1215 (1971) is available from: Justia Library of Congress