The Power of the Supreme Court’s Decision in the Fair Housing Act Case, TDHCA v. ICP

(Please turn to page 18) Florence Wagman Roisman ([email protected]), a former PRRAC Board member, is the William F. Harvey Professor of Law and a Chancellor’s Professor at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. She also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Inclusive Communities Project. This essay expresses her personal views. We may hope that the Supreme Court’s opinion in TDHCA v. ICP will lead these agencies affirmatively to obey the command of the Fair Housing Act before that statute marks its 50th anniversary. Courts and commentators will have much more to say about the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 25, 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project (TDHCA v. ICP). I believe it makes three enormously important contributions to the law and policy governing housing discrimination and segregation. The three contributions regard residential racial segregation, disparate impact, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Although the case went to the Supreme Court as a challenge to disparate impact as a basis for liability and usually is discussed in that context, I think the ruling’s implications for residential racial segregation are even more important, so I discuss those first.