Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted with the majority, said in a separate opinion supporting his decision that racial balance is a worthy goal for school districts and that districts can use other methods to achieve it.

That opinion has both the district and the parent group, Parents Involved in Community Schools, declaring victory. It's one reason the district, which spent about $434,000 on its portion of the seven-year battle, doesn't believe it should have to pay the plaintiffs' fees.

Technically, the parents group still has to get a U.S. district judge to declare them the "prevailing party," said Seattle Public Schools attorney Shannon McMinimee.

McMinimee says it's "disingenuous" for the law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, to go after money when the firm took the case pro bono. But firm spokesman Mark Usellis said "pro bono" means their clients don't have to pay.

"The thing that's really important to us in a civil-rights case is that Congress specifically and explicitly wrote into the law that if the government is found to have violated citizens' civil rights, then the prevailing party should seek fee recovery," he said.

Most governments can argue, as Seattle Public Schools is, that they don't have much money. But going after the fees helps deter other government bodies from violating civil rights, Usellis said.

The parents who sued the district in 2000 did not seek damages but asked the court to force Seattle to stop using the race-based tiebreaker that prevented their children, who are white, from attending Ballard High School. The district did, in 2002, but continued to fight for the policy in court, eventually making it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether to award the fees to the firm. If the firm wins, the fees likely wouldn't be covered by the district's insurance carrier, McMinimee said. So the money would have to come out of the district's $490 million general-fund budget.

"This one is a complex case," said Kevin Madonna, "We do a lot of cases involving communities where industry has done harm to drinking water supplies. This case is a chance to protect the community before damage is incurred."

Madonna said the large landfill proposed for the rural community in Conecuh is "a classic case of an out-of-state corporate interest bringing garbage in from out of state and dumping it on the people there, taking the money and running. It is a fundamentally unfair situation for the people there."

Phillip Kinney, who works for the public relations firm Matrix in Montgomery, is a spokesman for Conecuh Woods whose principals are based in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area. He disagreed with Madonna's characterization of the project.

"Conecuh Woods is not an out-of-state corporation," Kinney said, "it is an Alabama LLC, which was incorporated by Jimmy Stone and David Kirby. No other corporation or individuals have any interest in Conecuh Woods."

Kinney said that Conecuh Woods will be a "state-of-the-art economic development project" generating construction jobs, permanent jobs and revenue for Conecuh County. The money could be used to pave roads and help provide emergency services and programs for children and seniors, he said.

Developers have said the project could bring more than $250 million over more than 60 years and would provide about 15 jobs.

Controversy began in Conecuh and surrounding counties even before the landfill developers made a proposal. Several municipal governments and the Monroe and Escambia county commissions passed resolutions urging the Conecuh commission to refuse the landfill.

Though the commission voted in January against the project, that vote was not binding.

Once the developers make formal application, the County Commission can vote yes or no after a public hearing. If the commission takes no action, the landfill is automatically approved after 90 days.

Commissioners said the outcome of the referendum would not be binding.

Johnny Andrews, president of the citizen's group, said he was satisfied that the majority of Conecuh people oppose the landfill.

"I was startled the commissioners would ask for this to be on the ballot," Andrews said. "Why waste taxpayers' money when it is clear to everyone most people are against it?"

Madonna said his firm was "evaluating our options with respect to the commission's decision to place the issue on the ballot."

Kinney said Conecuh Woods considered the request for a vote to be good news. "Conecuh Woods applauds the county commissioners' decision to let the voters have a voice in their future and we look forward to the opportunity to speak directly to the citizens of Conecuh County."

"We do not know where he is at this moment," said James Brosnahan, Mr. Hsu’s lawyer. "We hope he will be court today."

Mr. Hsu’s absence seemed to be a repeat of his disappearing act in 1992, when he skipped out on a sentencing hearing related to his conviction in a fraud case, only to re-emerge years later as a major Democratic fund-raiser in New York. Since 2003, he personally contributed $600,000 to Democrats around the country and raised hundreds of thousands more, frequently hosting fund-raising parties and getting his picture taken with prominent politicians.

He was a designated "Hillraiser" for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, meaning he had bundled over $100,000 in contributions from others. Last week, the Clinton campaign said it was given to charity $23,000 Mr. Hsu had donated, and was reviewing other contributions he helped raised for any evidence of illegality.

Also last week, Mr. Hsu resigned from the board of the New School in New York, where he had served as a trustee and a member of the board of governors of the Eugene Lang College there.

Mr. Brosnahan told reporters outside the courthouse in Redwood City that he had sent an assistant to Mr. Hsu’s apartment in New York on Tuesday to retrieve Mr. Hsu’s passport, but it could not be found.

Ralph Sivilla, an assistant California attorney general, said the government had believed that the $2 million bail and Mr. Hsu’s agreement to remain in the country were sufficient to ensure that he would not flee.

"Those circumstances seemed to suggest he was not a flight risk," Mr. Sivilla said. "I don’t know at this point what our next step will be."

Asked whether Mr. Hsu could have left the country, Mr. Sivilla said "I would imagine he has the capability," although he added that he had no reason to believe that Mr. Hsu had done so.

Mr. Hsu’s latest disappearance deepens the mystery surrounding much of his life since he vanished 15 years ago. He apparently spent part of the 1990s in his native Hong Kong, where he managed a garment company, before returning to the United States and taking up residences in California and New York.

On campaign finance reports, he has listed his occupation as an executive at an assortment of companies that appear to be connected to the apparel trade, although efforts to verify his involvement with them have proven fruitless. An address he has given as his office in New York’s garment district seems to be little more than a mail drop, and people who work nearby have said they rarely see him.

McGraw-Hill is a New York-based financial and education information services company. McGraw-Hill had no immediate comment because it said it wasn't aware of the suit.