Superior Court Judge Marshall K. Berger on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a permanent injunction that would end 33 years of litigation under Sheff v. O’Neill, saying he hopes it will be implemented before “another generation of children suffers the consequences of a segregated public school education.”

Cara McClellan, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the case follows in the tradition of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the plaintiffs were represented by NAACP LDEF founder and chief counsel Thurgood Marshall.