Attorney General Griffin Announces District Court Has Terminated Camden-Fairview Consent Decrees

Griffin: ‘I applaud this decision, which will further empower parents to make the education-freedom decision that’s best for their family regardless of skin color’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement announcing that a federal district court has terminated the consent decrees that had restricted some students from transferring based on the color of their skin:

“For decades, federal district court judges have maintained and expanded consent decrees that ban white Camden-Fairview students from transferring to Harmony Grove without special permission, while allowing Camden-Fairview students of every other skin color to do so and allowing all students in other districts to do so. We asked the court to terminate the consent decrees, arguing that the white-student transfer ban interferes with the State’s chosen policy of education freedom, exceeds the court’s authority, and violates the Constitution by denying a group of schoolchildren educational opportunities solely because of the color of their skin. This week, the district court granted our motion and terminated the consent decrees.

“I applaud this decision, which will further empower parents to make the education-freedom decision that’s best for their family regardless of skin color. For example, the intervenors will be able to send their daughter to the public school that is best for their family, which is the public school where both her grandmothers work.”

To read a copy of the district court’s order, click here.

To download a PDF version of this release, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

###