This has been a landmark year in the history of Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 known as the Fair Housing Act (FHA), one of the original statutes to emerge from the civil rights movement. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Texas v. Inclusive Communities, 576 U.S. __ (2015), holding that disparate impact discrimination claims are cognizable under the FHA; race-neutral policies and practices that disparately impact housing opportunities or otherwise perpetuate segregation because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status can be challenged under the FHA.

Beyond the disparate impact holding, the majority opinion in Inclusive Communities articulated a strikingly robust view of the FHA in the nation's enduring efforts to achieve racial progress: “The FHA must play an important part in avoiding the Kerner Commission's grim prophecy that 'our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.'[1] The court acknowledges the FHA's continuing role in moving the Nation toward a more integrated society.” Inclusive Communities is the Supreme Court's first FHA case since Meyer v. Holley, 538 U.S. 188 (2003) (holding FHA imposes liability without fault upon officer or owner of a residential real estate corporation for the unlawful activity of the corporation's employee or agent in accordance with traditional agency principles); future FHA issues will now be looked through the prism of Inclusive Communities.

With Inclusive Communities making such a strong articulation of the FHA, its purpose, scope and structure, we may expect Inclusive Communities to be invoked in future cases involving other unresolved interpretations of the FHA. One such issue is whether the unreviewed administrative determination of an agency charged with enforcing anti-discrimination laws can have preclusive effect over an FHA civil action in federal court.