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June 25, 2015      5:26 PM

High Court strikes down state objections to disparate-impact housing claims

Indirectly rebuked the practice of Texas House members to veto the placement of subsidized housing in their local neighborhoods

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Fair Housing Act and indirectly rebuked a practice that’s given Texas House members the right to veto the placement of subsidized housing in their local neighborhoods.

Then-Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a bold appeal of a disparate-impact claims case to the nation’s top court after losing at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal was bold because circuit decisions have generally favored the idea that discrimination can be proven indirectly by outcomes.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, in a 5-4 opinion, wrote that the court had upheld disparate-impact claims in other areas of the law, such as employment practices. Texas had argued that discrimination must be outright or explicit.

“Together, Griggs holds and the plurality in Smith instructs that antidiscrimination laws must be construed to encompass disparate-impact claims when their text refers to the consequences of actions and not just to the mindset of actors, and where that interpretation is consistent with statutory purpose,” Kennedy wrote. “These cases also teach that disparate-impact liability must be limited so employers and other regulated entities are able to make the practical business choices and profit-related that sustain a vibrant and dynamic-free enterprise system.”

By Kimberly Reeves