Imminent Supreme Court ruling could make it easier to deny someone housing based on race

The Supreme Court’s decision could make it easier for redlining to run rampant.

From Think Progress:

For four years, civil rights advocates have struggled to keep the Supreme Court fromeliminating a key prong of federal fair housing law. This year, their luck is probably going to run out. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, a case that could leave many victims of housing discrimination unable to win their case in court. Based on the justices’ unusual eagerness to hear the issue presented by Inclusive Communities, their decision is likely to end badly for civil rights.

Nearly half a century after President Lyndon Johnson signed the federal Fair Housing Act, which bans many forms of discrimination in housing, racial discrimination remains a serious problem in the housing market. A study on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development determined that black and Asian homeseekers are shown or told about 15 to 19 percent fewer homes than white houseseekers, even if they have similar credit or housing interests. During the subprime lending boom, black borrowers with good credit were 3.5 times as likely as whites with similar credit scores to receive higher-interest-rate loans. Latinos were 3.1 percent times as likely to be shunted into such loans. In 2009, the Federal Reserve determined that, even when controlling for income and similar criteria, African Americans were twice as likely to be denied a loan altogether.

Read more at Think Progress

Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society