like they’d evar

like they’d evar: "

This February, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals—widely seen as one of the more liberal federal courts in the nation—issued its ruling in Darensburg v. Metropolitan Transit Commission, a lawsuit brought by poor, largely minority riders of public buses in the San Francisco Bay Area. The plaintiffs had alleged that, since a large majority of the city’s bus riders were nonwhite, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s preference for rail-expansion projects over bus-expansion projects was racially biased and a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The court ruled against the plaintiffs and issued a stinging rebuke to their lawyers. Is it possible that, even in California, courts long tolerant of questionable claims of racial discrimination may finally be running out of patience?

Sylvia Darensburg, the primary plaintiff in the case, is an African-American mother of three who lives in East Oakland and relies on public buses as her primary form of transportation. Darensburg, said the Equal Justice Society—a San Francisco–based activist organization that advocated on behalf of the plaintiffs, though it wasn’t involved in the case itself—“experiences the reality of transit inequality.” She “endures” long waits for the two buses she rides and has to walk 12 blocks from home to the nearest bus stop. The plaintiffs argued that while nearly 80 percent of Bay Area bus riders were people of color, the region’s rail service predominantly benefited white riders. So the Metropolitan Transit Commission’s disproportionate funding of rail projects was biased….

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