21.   That order, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court two years later, led to dozens of other desegregation plans, involving remedies like busing and magnet schools.

22.   The busing order, upheld by the Supreme Court the following year later, led to dozens of other desegregation plans that included busing and magnet schools.

23.   The decision ran counter to a trend in federal courts, which had been moving away from ordering desegregation plans across these district lines.

24.   The court also struck down a Kansas City school desegregation plan requiring Missouri to spend money to attract suburban white students to mostly black urban schools.

25.   The reconstituted Board of Regents, the court said, eventually dismissed Ewald Nyquist, then state education commissioner, largely because he was pursuing desegregation plans.

26.   The ruling stopped short of ordering an end to the Kansas City desegregation plan.

27.   The school district, which wants the desegregation plan to continue and has joined black parents in opposing the state in court, has spent the rest.

28.   The state has started one last effort to prompt the towns to agree among themselves on some sort of desegregation plan.

29.   The Superior Court in Los Angeles then conducted hearings to develop a desegregation plan, a process that lasted years.

30.   Thomas is a former assistant attorney general in Missouri, but he served in that job before the state became involved in the desegregation plan.