| Venue: | District Court in NY |
| Facts: | Starrett City is a giant housing complex whose goal is to be racially integrated. They started it up with certain percentages, and then when people moved out, the next occupants had to be of the same racial background. So this means that some folks seeking apartments couldn't get them, if one of their racial classification wasn't available, even though there might be an empty apartment. |
| Posture: | Unknown. |
| Issue: | Does Starrett discriminate in violation of the fair housing act? |
| Holding: | Yes. |
| Rule: | A plan employing racial distinctions must be temporary in nature with a defined goal as its termination point. |
| Reasoning: | Quotas are a dubious thing to begin with because they single out those
least well represented in the political process to bear the brunt
of a benign program. And here, the quotas aren't providing
minorities with access- they act as a cieling to their access.
Racial classifications are presumptively discriminatory, but you can get away with race-conscious affirmative action, as long as you don't try to make it permanent. |
| Dicta: | Dissent: this is just eviscerating the while idea of the community. |