728
Opinion of the Court
and its progeny clearly mandate this observation. Thus, the primary issue in these cases is whether the State has met its affirmative duty to dismantle its prior dual university system.
Our decisions establish that a State does not discharge its constitutional obligations until it eradicates policies and practices traceable to its prior de jure dual system that continue to foster segregation. Thus we have consistently asked whether existing racial identifiability is attributable to the State, see, e. g., Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U. S. 467, 496 (1992); Bazemore v. Friday, supra, at 407 (White, J., concurring); Pasadena City Bd. of Ed. v. Spangler, 427 U. S. 424, 434 (1976); Gilmore v. City of Montgomery, 417 U. S. 556, 566- 567 (1974); and examined a wide range of factors to determine whether the State has perpetuated its formerly de jure segregation in any facet of its institutional system. See, e. g., Board of Ed. of Oklahoma City Public Schools v. Dowell, 498 U. S. 237, 250 (1991); Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Ed., 402 U. S. 1, 18 (1971); Green v. School Bd. of New Kent County, supra, at 435-438.
The Court of Appeals concluded that the State had fulfilled its affirmative obligation to disestablish its prior de jure segregated system by adopting and implementing race-neutral policies governing its college and university system. Because students seeking higher education had "real freedom" to choose the institution of their choice, the State need do no more. Even though neutral policies and free choice were not enough to dismantle a dual system of primary or secondary schools, Green v. School Bd. of New Kent County, 391 U. S. 430 (1968), the Court of Appeals thought that universities "differ in character fundamentally" from lower levels of schools, 914 F. 2d, at 686, sufficiently so that our decision in Bazemore v. Friday, supra, justified the conclusion that the State had dismantled its former dual system.
Like the United States, we do not disagree with the Court of Appeals' observation that a state university system is
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