A federal judge has thrown out Chicago’s school desgregation order. That means the district may no longer be able to racially balance its most coveted schools.

File: The full court document

The order came yesterday, 29 years to the day after the U.S. government sued the district for discriminating against black and Hispanic students. The resulting consent decree created Chicago’s popular magnet schools and mandated that minority students have a place there. That is now in jeopardy.

Freda Williams has a son at Disney, the district’s first magnet school.

WILLIAMS: That’s why I chose Disney for him. I could have sent him to a neighborhood school, but the last thing a parent I think should want to do is just send their child to a school where it’s just that culture.

The order says, “Improvements have been made and the vestiges of discrimination are no longer.” It acknowledges the challenges of integrating students in a school system that is now just eight percent white. The vast majority of CPS students attend schools that are predominantly black or Latino.