DOJ Moves To End Over 50 Long-Running School Desegregation Decrees

On Thursday, September 24, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is seeking to end more than 50 long-running school desegregation consent decrees that put districts under federal oversight.^[1]

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the Civil Rights Division is ending what she called "prolonged" and "onerous" federal oversight in the affected districts.^[1] The department said it is reviewing desegregation cases from the 1960s and 1970s and will ask judges to dismiss decrees once it determines a district has achieved unitary status.^[1] Federal judges must approve any dismissal, and it was not yet clear how many of the roughly 50 targeted cases have been formally tossed.^[1] Kristen Clarke, the former head of the Civil Rights Division who now serves as NAACP general counsel, said the move risks fueling resegregation and discrimination in public schools.^[1]

Many consent decrees were put in place in the 1960s and 1970s to force districts to integrate schools and to require long-term federal oversight of district policies.^[1] Unitary status is the legal standard authorities use to decide if a district has dismantled its segregated system.

How judges and affected communities respond will determine whether ending these decrees produces significant changes in school integration across the country.

1. CBS News