Aggressive judicial remedies can backfire and worsen the condition they aim to fix.

Evidence

The public response to this aggressive judicial intervention was overwhelmingly negative. Congress cut off federal funds for busing in 1972, and in 1978 it forbade HEW to terminate federal funds to school districts when compliance with desegregation would require busing. More than 200 members of Congress supported a constitutional amendment to outlaw busing for racial balance. In some Northern communities, the response recalled the violence in Little Rock. In Pontiac, Michigan, arsonists firebombed 10 school buses; and at South Boston High, after a white student was stabbed, an angry mob trapped 135 black students in the school for 4 hours, until a police decoy operation extricated them. In many cities, court-ordered busing prompted “white flight” to private schools or to the suburbs. In Memphis, Tennessee, 35 percent of white students left the public school system during the first year of busing; and in New Castle County, Delaware, white enrollment following busing declined 50 percent. Instead of promoting racial integration, busing in these communities accelerated the transition to a virtually all-black school system. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1564

Categorization

• QUESTION: To what degree did court-ordered busing itself cause white flight versus merely coinciding with it? The next paragraph raises the rival explanation.
• XREF: connects to: Public opposition can drive the Supreme Court to retreat from its own remedies. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1566; Sanctions targeting deviants can backfire by worsening the conduct of natural compliers. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 978; Anti-bias interventions can backfire by threatening the group they regulate. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 280 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Sanctions targeting deviants can backfire by worsening the conduct of natural compliers. #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 978
• Anti-bias interventions can backfire by threatening the group they regulate. #corroborates (0.85) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 280
• Punitive sanctions can backfire by destroying opportunities that enable desistance. #corroborates (0.80) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1074
• Granting new legal rights can weaken rather than strengthen one’s position. #corroborates (0.80) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 789
• External pressure to avoid prejudice can backfire and worsen it. #corroborates (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2125
• Legal deterrence based on threatened punishment works poorly in practice. #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1375
• Anger-reduction interventions may ethically backfire by demobilizing injustice challengers. #corroborates (0.75) — Johanna Ray Vollhardt and Michelle Sinayobye Twali, Emotion-Based Reconciliation Requires…, 62
• A fierce critic can inadvertently reinforce the very system he attacks. #corroborates (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 341