
Racial Discrimination in Housing at the Supreme Court: Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project
Bradley, a teaching assistant for Yale's America's Unwritten Constitution course with Akhil Reed Amar, breaks down Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project. He explains the 1968 Fair Housing Act, why proving intentional discrimination is difficult, and how the disparate impact standard offers a different route to enforcement. He distinguishes the statutory question in the case from a constitutional one, then places it against the Roberts Court's recent wariness of race-conscious remedies, citing Scalia's oral argument questions. The lecture closes by connecting Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to McCulloch v. Maryland, arguing Amar's view that disparate impact laws fall within Congress's enforcement power under a generous reading of that precedent. The lecture moves through chapters covering the case background, the legal standard, the statutory versus constitutional distinction, and the Roberts Court's record on race.