This report attempts to illustrate how courts have undertaken the task of relating the constitutional mandate for equal educational opportunity to the political and institutional issues posed in specific school desegregation cases since the Supreme Court's Brown decision. The first section of the report is an introduction to legalism and politics in school desegregation. The essay discusses the interplay between doctrinal development and political responses, focusing on decision making in both Federal trial and appellate courts. The seven sections that follow present the histories of school desegregation litigation in Dallas, Saint Louis, Wilmington, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Pasadena, and Denver. Each case study presents background information on the city and its school district, detailed descriptions of Federal and appellate litigation, desegregation plans and implementation resulting from court decisions, and the implications of the court decisions and desegregation plans. (MK)