1.   But if approved, the deal would close yet another major federal desegregation suit.

2.   It also authorized the attorney general to initiate desegregation suits.

3.   Last November, a federal judge dismissed the desegregation suit, saying the district had done all it could to end racial segregation.

4.   Neither did officials at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the plaintiffs in the original desegregation suit.

5.   There are countless other desegregation suits still on the books that the Justice Department was never a party to, but there is no way to track them.