34 Fair empl.prac.cas. 1009, 34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,311 Larry Williams v. The City of New Orleans, Etc.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge,

with whom GARWOOD and JOLLY, Circuit Judges, join, specially concurring:

I concur in the result reached by Judge Williams, but do not agree that the difficult issues now before us can be avoided by deciding whether the district court abused its discretion. We cannot enjoy that comfort of non-decision. Discretion implies a choice of courses. The consent decree proposed illegal racial discrimination and the only permissible course was to refuse the proposed settlement.

I

Of course, our Constitution has as an objective a color-blind society, but its *1566means…