A federal appeals court has handed Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill another victory in her effort to close long-running school desegregation cases. The Fifth Circuit ruled that a federal district court could not continue supervising the school system after all remaining parties agreed to dismiss the case.

Background

The decision did not find that Concordia Parish had fully eliminated the remaining effects of segregation; instead, it resolved a procedural question about whether the litigation could remain open once the parties sought dismissal. The United States, the Concordia Parish School Board, and Delta Charter Group were the remaining parties after the original 1965 plaintiffs were dismissed from the case in 2025.

According to Judge Don Willett, who wrote for the Fifth Circuit majority, “Once the stipulation was filed, the case was over — and nothing the district court did afterward could change that.” Murrill stated that her office would continue working to end what she described as outdated federal oversight and return authority to local communities.

This decision marks the latest success for Murrill in dismantling longstanding federal court supervision of Louisiana school systems that were once legally segregated. In April 2025, federal desegregation litigation involving the Plaquemines Parish School Board was dismissed. In January, a decades-old desegregation case involving the DeSoto Parish School Board was also dismissed.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.