Cite as: 515 U. S. 70 (1995)
O'Connor, J., concurring
emphasizes the alleged deviation from Milliken I. But the Court was free to reject HUD's characterization of the relevant district, which it did:
"The housing market area 'usually extends beyond the city limits' and in the larger markets 'may extend into several adjoining counties.' . . . An order against HUD and CHA regulating their conduct in the greater metropolitan area will do no more than take into account HUD's expert determination of the area relevant to the respondents' housing opportunities and will thus be wholly commensurate with 'the nature and extent of the constitutional violation.' " 425 U. S., at 299-300 (quoting Milliken I, supra, at 744).
In light of this explicit holding, any suggestion that Gautreaux dispensed with the predicates of Milliken I for interdistrict relief rings hollow.
This distinction notwithstanding, the dissent emphasizes a footnote in Gautreaux, in which we reversed the finding by the Court of Appeals that "either an interdistrict violation or an interdistrict segregative effect may have been present," 425 U. S., at 294, n. 11, and argues that implicit in that holding is a suggestion that district lines may be ignored even absent a showing of interdistrict segregative effects, post, at 173. But no footnote is an island, entire of itself, and our statement in footnote 11 must be read in context. As explained above, we rejected the petitioner's categorical suggestion that "court-ordered metropolitan area relief in this case would be impermissible as a matter of law," 425 U. S., at 305. But the Court of Appeals had gone too far the other way, suggesting that the District Court had to consider metropolitan area relief because the conditions of Milliken I—i. e., interdistrict violation or significant interdistrict segregative effects—had been established as a factual matter. We reversed these ill-advised findings by the appellate court in order to preserve to the District Court its proper role,
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