The Fair Housing Act

“It is the policy of the United States to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States.”

— 42 U.S.C. § 3601

• Previously in This Series

  1 | The Right to Inherit, Purchase, Lease, Sell, Hold, and Convey a Home

  2 | The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment

  3 | The Exile of Privileges or Immunities

  4 | When Due Process Is “Fairly Debatable”

  5 | We All Deserve Equal Protection

  6 | The Cruelty of “Quiet Seclusion”

  7 | Why Courts Ignore Exclusionary Zoning

The Fair Housing Act was enacted in 1968 to outlaw discrimination in the “sale or rental” of housing “because of race, color, religion, or national origin.” Civil Rights Act of 1968, Pub. L. No. 90-284, tit. VIII, § 804(a), 82 Stat. 73, 83. (It’s since been amended to prohibit housing discrimination based on “sex, handicap, [and] familial status” as well.)

The first rule of statutory construction is: read the statute.

Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 et seq.

The second rule of statutory construction is: keep reading the statute. We’ll see, in our next two posts, how the Supreme Court has yet to enforce the Fair Housing Act in a way that would make up for the Court’s past constitutional mistakes.