The Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case in 1970 was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that dealt with the desegregation of public schools. The court ruled unanimously, stating that federal courts had the authority to oversee and produce remedies for state-imposed segregation, including busing students to non-neighborhood schools if necessary. This ruling came after Darius and Vera Swann sued the school board on behalf of their son James, who had been denied entrance into an integrated school closer to his home due to districting lines drawn based on race. The court's decision effectively ended de jure racial segregation in Southern public schools and set a precedent for future cases dealing with institutional racial discrimination.

In the dissenting opinion for Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, Justice Hugo Black expressed concern over judicial overreach and a departure from constitutional principles. He argued that while desegregation was necessary, it should not be achieved through forced busing or by mandating racial balance in schools as these measures were not explicitly required by the Constitution or Brown v. Board of Education ruling. He believed such actions could potentially infringe upon states' rights to manage their own school systems and might lead to further social division rather than integration. Furthermore, he feared that this decision would set a precedent for courts to intervene excessively in local affairs based on subjective interpretations of what is 'right', instead of strictly adhering to constitutional mandates.