NFHA Commends State Attorneys General for Affirming Key Antidiscrimination Protections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
WASHINGTON—Fourteen state Attorneys General issued guidance today affirming that federal and state civil rights protections remain legal and enforceable and that they will continue to enforce them. The guidance covers housing, lending, employment, education, and healthcare, and it comes as the Trump Administration moves to eliminate a 50-year-old legal standard that allows for effective enforcement of hard-won civil rights protections.
“NFHA applauds these courageous Attorneys General for reminding us all that the Constitution and civil rights laws remain the law of the land and are foundational to a healthy democracy. We also commend the practical guidance they provide to help those who want to comply with the law notwithstanding the Trump Administration’s attempts to confuse,” said NFHA General Counsel Janell Byrd-Chichester.
“NFHA stands with the Attorneys General of Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, California, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington for stating plainly that both intentional discrimination and actions with unjustified discriminatory impact remain unlawful, and that the law protecting against them is enforceable. We will work with them to ensure that all Americans receive the fair and equal treatment to which they are entitled.”
Discrimination in housing and lending is illegal and can be established in two ways. The first is by proving intentional discrimination: a landlord who refuses to rent to a family because of their race or national origin, or a lender who charges a woman more for a car loan because she’s a woman. But it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to prove the subjective motives behind someone’s actions. People are harmed every day by unfair treatment whether it is intentional, the result of unacknowledged bias, or simply unthinking use of policies that exclude people unnecessarily. Over decades, the nation’s civil rights laws have been carefully developed to recognize the need to prohibit both intentional discrimination and actions that have an unjustified discriminatory impact. It’s the latter that the Attorneys General recognized was important to explain and defend.
What disparate impact requires is straightforward. When a policy or practice causes a disproportionate harmful effect based on a protected characteristic like race, national origin, or gender, whoever established the policy or practice has to show that it is needed for a legitimate purpose. If they show the policy or practice is justified, but it is shown that there is another way to accomplish the same goal with less harmful impact, the court will require adoption of the less harmful approach. That’s how communities challenge zoning that bans apartments outright, and how renters challenge screening algorithms that filter them out from securing housing before a person ever reads their application. The Supreme Court upheld that standard under the Fair Housing Act in 2015. This Administration is working to erase it. HUD has withdrawn its Discriminatory Effects regulation, and the CFPB has written disparate impact out of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s (ECOA) Regulation B.
“NFHA is in court challenging the rollback of ECOA’s longstanding lending discrimination protections now, because no president and no agency has the authority to repeal by administrative rulemaking what Congress passed and the courts affirmed. A person’s zip code shouldn’t determine their outcomes in life, and disparate impact is one of the most powerful tools for making that enforceable. If you’ve been denied a home or a loan and the reason didn’t add up, your state attorney general’s civil rights office and your local fair housing organization can both take that complaint. We’re asking attorneys general in every other state to issue similar guidance. NFHA will continue pressing to uphold the rule of law,” added Byrd-Chichester.
Click here to read the Multistate Guidance on Antidiscrimination Protections.
Press inquiries: jglover@nationalfairhousing.org
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About the National Fair Housing Alliance
The National Fair Housing Alliance leads a coalition that works to build inclusive, well-resourced, and resilient communities; expand equitable opportunities; and end housing discrimination.