Facts
- Two Black children applied for admission to privately owned, commercially operated, nonsectarian schools in Virginia.
- The parents paid application fees and sought to enroll their children on the same terms offered to white applicants.
- The schools denied admission because of the children’s race and maintained policies excluding Black students.
- The children and their parents sued on behalf of a class, alleging the refusals violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981’s guarantee of an equal right to make and enforce contracts.
- The district court found intentional racial exclusion, enjoined the schools and an intervening private-school association from racial discrimination in admissions, and awarded compensatory damages (with one parent’s damages claim limited by a borrowed state limitations period).
- The court of appeals largely affirmed the relief and limitations ruling but reversed an attorneys’ fees award.
- The Supreme Court granted review.
Issues
- Whether 42 U.S.C. § 1981 prohibits privately owned, commercially operated, nonsectarian schools from denying admission to prospective students because of race.
- Whether applying § 1981 to such schools violates constitutional rights of privacy or freedom of association for schools and parents who prefer racially segregated education.
- Whether a state personal-injury limitations period may be borrowed for § 1981 damages claims and whether attorneys’ fees are available without explicit statutory authorization.
Decision
- The Court affirmed that § 1981 forbids these schools from denying admission on the basis of race.
- The Court held that admissions to fee-charging private schools involve contracts for educational services, and racially refusing to contract violates § 1981.
- The Court rejected First Amendment and privacy defenses, concluding there is no affirmative constitutional right to engage in private racial exclusion in contracting.
- The Court approved borrowing Virginia’s two-year personal-injury limitations period for the parents’ damages claim.
- The Court held attorneys’ fees were unavailable absent explicit congressional authorization.
Legal Principles
- 42 U.S.C. § 1981 applies to private racial discrimination in the making and enforcement of contracts, including contracts for educational services offered by commercially operated private schools.
- A refusal to enter a contractual relationship solely because an applicant is Black denies the equal contractual right protected by § 1981.
- Freedom of association and privacy protect beliefs and certain associational choices, but do not provide a constitutional shield for invidious racial exclusion in commercial contracting.
- In § 1981 actions, federal courts may borrow an appropriate state statute of limitations where Congress has not supplied one.
- Under the American Rule, attorneys’ fees are not recoverable absent explicit congressional authorization.
Conclusion
The Court held that § 1981 reaches private, nonsectarian schools operating as commercial enterprises and prohibits racially discriminatory admissions, while also rejecting constitutional defenses based on association or privacy and reaffirming limits on damages timing and fee shifting absent statutory authorization.