SCOTUS Hands Win to Obama Over Banks, Insurance Cos and Business Groups

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court handed a major victory to the Obama administration and civil rights groups on Thursday when it upheld a key tool used for more than four decades to fight housing discrimination.

The justices ruled 5-4 that federal housing laws prohibit seemingly neutral practices that harm minorities, even without proof of intentional discrimination. The case involved an appeal from Texas officials accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by awarding federal tax credits in a way that kept low-income housing out of white neighborhoods.
...
The ruling is a defeat for banks, insurance companies and other business groups that claimed such lawsuits are not explicitly allowed under the Fair Housing Act, the landmark 1968 law that sought to eliminate segregation that has long existed in residential housing.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-upholds-fair-housing-act

Thanks, Obama.

[riversedge]

1. Just read that insurance industry stocks went up with aca decision.

[blogslut]

2. Perhaps

But this OP is about the SCOTUS upholding the Fair Housing Act.

[Recursion]

3. ACA is about using insurance companies to lower hospital prices

You act like insurance stock prices going up is a bad thing.

[pampango]

4. "The ruling is a defeat for banks, insurance companies and other business groups ..."

Both the Obama administration and civil rights groups have tried for years to keep the issue away from theSupreme Court, fearing that conservative justices wanted to end the use of disparate impact lawsuits in housing cases. In fact, two similar cases out of Minnesota and New Jersey previously had reached the court in recent years, but those cases were settled or strategically withdrawn just weeks before oral argument.

Yet the court took up the Texas case last year despite the fact that there was no split among lower courts over the issue. That led to major worries for the NAACP and other civil rights groups that the court was inclined to end the strategy.

Thanks for posting this, Rose Siding.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Hmmm...

This sounds like a step in the right direction.

[Kber]

6. Or at least it avoids a step in the wrong direction