A federal judge in the decades-old Pulaski County Special School District desegregation case says the makeup of the newly formed Jacksonville School District is not part of the case.
Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ruled Monday that a challenge to two planned at-large school board seats was "beyond the scope" of the desegregation case. Marshall says the Joshua Interveners, a group of black parents who filed the case, would have to file a separate challenge alleging a federal Voting Rights Act violation.
A lawyer for the interveners argued at-large elected officials in general cancel out minority representation and that the proposed member boundaries had changed.
Voters approved carving the Jacksonville district from Pulaski County's boundaries in November. The court is considering how the desegregation ruling applies to the new district.
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