Housing Discrimination
Certificate(s): Public Interest and Social Justice Law
Course Description:
Exploration of the scope of discrimination in housing in the United States and the nature and adequacy of the legal remedies created to prevent it. The course will focus on primarily on federal statutory law, but will also examine some state statutes and some historical materials. Important themes of the class will be differences between the kinds of categories protected by state and federal statutes (e.g., race, sex, disabilities, and marital status) and continuing issues of residential segregation. Topics covered will include proving discrimination, discriminatory advertising, the meaning of race under the 1866 Civil Rights Act, the meaning of “handicap” under the Fair Housing Act, accommodation of persons with disabilities, and discrimination to achieve integration. Discrimination in lending, sexual harassment, marital status discrimination, and claims that enforcement of certain fair housing provisions violates the free exercise rights of landlords may also be covered.
Class Notes:
This course will focus on discrimination in housing on the basis of race, sex, and sexual orientation under both federal and state law. This is a two hour course that will meet for 150 minutes each week at the beginning of the semester and end after nine weeks of class. Students will have the remainder of the semester to work on the final paper for the course. There will be no exam.
