the formal order (filed September 30, 1998):

IT IS ORDERED that the Writ of Mandate issued as of March 10, 1977 is discharged as of July 1, 1998. The Court's August 1996 Order directed the District to continue and to increase its integration programs and goals. Significantly, no party appealed that Order and it remains viable. If future actions warrant involvement, the Court's jurisdiction can be invoked again by a new Writ of Mandate.

On October 6, 1998 I received a copy of the Order and sent a copy to each client in conjunction with an earlier letter advising the results and closing the representation on my part.

After over seventeen years of effort, I felt enormous pride in what we (myself and the Groundswell citizens led by Larry Lester) had accomplished. They and those similarly situated were free of a non-class status in a pending class action, and could exercise the full range of their civil rights on a level “playing field.”