U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala has set a hearing for Tuesday, March 24 to determine whether she will lift an injunction issued Wednesday against Gardendale City Schools’ lawsuit against the Jefferson County Schools.

In her order, Haikala granted Gardendale’s request to become a co-defendant in the decades-old case of Stout and United States vs. Jefferson County Board of Education, but put a temporary halt to the new system’s legal efforts to force JefCoEd to stop delaying the separation process, so that the new city system could take over operation in time for the 2015-16 academic year.

Haikala is the judge of record in the Stout case, which required the desegregation of the county schools. The federal court still has oversight over JefCoEd, and all city systems that have spun off from it, though the county has been working toward achieving “unitary status,” which means that federal supervision would no longer be required.

In her order, Haikala criticized both systems for not including the plaintiffs in the Stout case in their separation negotiations. That would primarily include representatives of the Department of Justice.

The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Hugo Black U.S. Courthouse in downtown Birmingham.