The Supreme Court just granted a huge victory to fair housing advocates

[TPreston]

The Supreme Court just issued a major ruling that saved a key tool used to prevent discrimination in housing in America.

In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the court ruled that a law passed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 aimed at preventing discrimination in buying, renting, and financing homes applies even when the discrimination isn't overt or intentional.

In 2008, an advocacy group called the Inclusive Communities Project sued the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, claiming that the department perpetuated housing segregation by incentivizing low-income housing developments in predominantly poor neighborhoods in the Dallas metro-area. The Texas department grants tax credits to developers to build low income housing units without losing money.

Neither Texas nor the Inclusive Communities Project dispute that the state's actions didn't perpetuate housing segregation. Rather, the two sides disagreed over whether the actions violate the FHA, which Texas claims only prohibits intentional discrimination.

The Inclusive Communities project disagreed, arguing that the agency's actions have a "disparate impact" on minorities that constitutes discrimination under the FHA.

If the court had ruled against Inclusive Communities, the decision could have had a huge impact that would have made it much harder to bring housing discrimination suits. As the National Fair Housing organization notes, overt housing discrimination is fairly rare. Plaintiffs in discrimination suits rely heavily on the "disparate impact" interpretation in order to win cases.