Supreme Court to hear Dallas housing discrimination case this week--Fair Housing Act under scrutiny
WASHINGTON — What if the way Texas has awarded federal tax credits to low-income housing developers in Dallas has helped keep black residents out of heavily white neighborhoods?
Should it matter if the policies responsible weren’t intended to be racist? Or do they violate federal civil rights laws based solely on the fact that they’ve routinely limited housing choices for poor blacks?
Those questions are at the core of a closely watched case out of Dallas to be argued Wednesday before the Supreme Court. It’s a slow-moving dispute from 2008 that could alter the way discrimination claims are handled nationwide.
For nearly half a century, plaintiffs in civil rights lawsuits have challenged policies when their impact has been discriminatory, even if that wasn’t their purpose. Texas is asking the Supreme Court to bar such suits over housing discrimination unless plaintiffs show that the discrimination was on purpose.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150119-supreme-court-to-hear-dallas-housing-discrimination-case-this-week.ece
