Lower Merion district asks court to deny new redistricting trial

The Lower Merion School District has filed a court brief calling a federal judge's decision in a redistricting case "sound and well reasoned," and asking the court to deny nine South Ardmore students' motion for a new trial.

In a 16-page document filed Thursday in Philadelphia, the district argued that there must be a compelling reason - to correct a verdict or prevent injustice - to justify a new trial.

"Notably," argued the district's attorney, Judith E. Harris, "a motion for a new trial is not meant to be an avenue to rehash or relitigate legal principles and arguments already presented to, and rejected by, the court."

On July 22, David G.C. Arnold, attorney for the nine students who filed a racial-bias suit, asked U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson for a new trial on the ground that the judge's verdict contained errors.

Baylson ruled June 24 that the district broke no laws when it imposed a redistricting plan last September that removed the students' choice of high school. Arnold alleges that Baylson's reasoning was faulty.

The pupils, who live in a diverse neighborhood, were forced by redistricting to attend Harriton High School, five miles by bus from their homes. They wanted to walk to Lower Merion High School, which is closer.

Redistricting was necessary because more pupils live near Lower Merion High than Harriton. The district is replacing both high schools in a $200 million building project.

The nine students alleged in court that the district singled out their neighborhood to attend Harriton because they are black, but the district argued that geography, travel time and educational continuity also played a role.

In an e-mail Friday, James Herbert, spokesman for the nine students, dismissed the district's filing as "nothing surprising" and called its arguments "specious."

Herbert said the court's ruling appeared to say that race-based redistricting was acceptable in the case of whole neighborhoods, but not in individual cases.

The plaintiffs "are confident that they will ultimately prevail in this case," he wrote.

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