Ten-year-old Edmund Lee is barred from enrolling in a public school that accepts students from the Maryland Heights suburb where he and his family live. Why? Because he's black. If he were white, he would be allowed to apply to any charter or magnet school in the City of St. Louis, but because Lee is African American, he is automatically disqualified from enrolling. 

Under lingering remnants of a court-ordered integration plan implemented years ago, the city of St. Louis places limitations on student transfers to charter and magnet schools. Admissions are open to white, Asian and Latino students, but not to black kids from the same suburbs. The discriminatory practice continues to this day, despite the fact that the court ended its jurisdiction over area schools in 1999.

As a victim of these racial barriers, Lee is challenging this denial of his constitutional rights. With representation provided free of charge by the Pacific Legal Foundation, the 10-year-old is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow his constitutional challenge to move forward. “Edmund is taking a courageous and principled stand for fundamental rights,” said PLF Senior Attorney Joshua Thompson. “Whatever may have been the rationale for these race-based transfer restrictions years ago, they have no justification now. Edmund simply wants the same opportunity as his white neighbors. They can apply to schools in the city. Why can’t he? There can be no excuse in the 21st century for denying equal opportunity to any child — or any adult —based on skin color.”

Lee was a registered pupil at the St. Louis charter school in question up until the third grade but when he and his family moved to the suburb of Maryland Heights, they were shocked to learn that his race made it impossible for him to attend the very same school as a transfer student. With the support of the Pacific Legal Foundation, Lee and his family are fighting to make sure that this barrier is lifted for future students in his position.