In June 1974 a Supreme Court dominated by conservative Nixon appointees overturned the lower-court decision in Milliken v. Bradley. In Milliken, Detroit district court judge Stephen Roth, having found the city’s residential segregation to be the result of both public policy and the discriminatory practices of realtors, had mandated large-scale interdistrict busing to integrate white and black schools across the metropolitan area. The Supreme Court’s rejection of Roth’s findings effectively absolved suburban whites of any responsibility for desegregation, seemingly dooming efforts toward
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