Lawyer awarded $210,000 in school assignment suit

Gordon sought $750,000 in historic Jefferson case

Louisville attorney Ted Gordon will receive $210,000 for leading the five-year legal fight to overturn Jefferson County Public Schools' racial integration policy -- less than a third of what he requested.

Gordon sustained the case "more upon a conviction than skill," U.S. District Judge John Heyburn wrote [last week]in his ruling awarding the money for fees, expenses and a bonus, but "the undeniable truth is that counsel pursued an epic case against considerable odds and vehement opposition to an astonishing success."

Crystal Meredith, the Louisville woman whose son was at the center of the case, won't receive any money, Heyburn ruled.

The judge ruled that the school district should pay Gordon $112,500 for nearly 500 hours of work at $225 an hour in the legal case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gordon asked for $400 an hour and a bonus for a total of $750,000.

In addition to $10,138 in expenses, Heyburn granted Gordon an $88,000 bonus for his tenacity in pursuing the civil-rights case despite adverse precedent, public criticism and risk of failure....

This from the Courier-Journal.

Schools' course since race ruling OK'd

Fall assignments won't change

This from Chris Kenning at The Courier-Journal:

Jefferson County Public Schools' decision to stop using race for new student assignments and transfers is "entirely consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision," a federal judge said yesterday.

In a court hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge John Heyburn said the high court's recent 5-4 decision allows the district to adopt any plan it wants by any date -- as long as it doesn't use race to assign individual students to schools.

School board Chairman Joe Hardesty said yesterday's hearing means that "there's no reason we can't proceed on the timetable we've established" for instituting a new student-assignment plan by the 2009-10 school year.

Attorney Teddy Gordon, who represented parent Crystal Meredith in the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court ruling and requested the hearing, did not object to the timeline...

...Heyburn brushed aside Gordon's implication that the district might still be applying race but using the lack of space as an excuse, saying Gordon offered no credible evidence.

"If anyone is denied a transfer in violation of the Supreme Court decision, I'll take it up on a case