Another Dream Deferred? Walker v. City of Mesquite and the Threat to Meaningful Desegregation Remedies

Thomas Peter Abt

Georgetown University Law Center; Class of 2000

In an effort to remedy a long history of racial segregation in public housing in West Dallas, the district court for the Northern District of Texas ordered the Dallas Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish dilapidated and dangerous public housing units. The court ordered new units be erected in racially diverse areas-including areas that were predominantly white. However, in response to an appeal by white residents, the Fifth Circuit reversed this decision in a March, 1999, reasoning that the court order violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This Comment argues that the Fifth Circuit decision in Walker v. City of Mesquite failed to distinguish between different kinds of racial classifications and remedies, and therefore incorrectly analyzed the constitutionality of the remedy fashioned by the lower court.

Vol. VII, No. 1, p. 123

Revised July 16, 2003 (MD)