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Thomas v. Anchorage Equal Rights Comm'n
Community Rights
Counsel recently played a pivotal role in assisting
the City of Anchorage, Alaska in seeking reconsideration
of a court ruling on property rights that threatens a
broad array of environmental and civil rights
protections.
The Case
In Thomas v. Anchorage Equal Rights Comm'n
(click here
for full text of the case), two landlords challenged laws
of the City of Anchorage and State of Alaska that
prohibit discrimination by commercial landlords against
unmarried couples. The landlords claimed that laws
requiring them to rent to unmarried couples violate their
religious liberty. On January 14, 1999, a divided panel
of the Ninth Circuit -- the federal appellate court that
covers Alaska, California, and seven other western states
-- struck down the laws as applied to the plaintiffs and
similarly situated landlords. In so ruling, the panel
ignored decisions by the Supreme Courts of Alaska,
California, and Michigan upholding such protections. The
panel bolstered the landlords' otherwise meritless
religious liberty claim by concluding that the fair
housing laws also raise property rights and free speech
issues.
A Property Rights Barrier to Civil Rights
Protections?
The court's ruling that the landlords were
"likely to succeed" on their property rights
claim is remarkable because it directly contravenes a
landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld our
nation's basic civil rights laws against a similar
challenge by a white motel operator who refused to serve
African-Americans. As a result, the Thomas
ruling calls into question a host of fair housing and
civil rights protections and could be used to justify
discrimination against the disabled, divorced persons,
seniors, and many others.
CRC Steps in to Provide Critical Assistance
The court's newfangled property-rights theory was a
surprise even to the local government attorneys on the
case, who were left scrambling to respond within the
14-day deadline for rehearing petitions. Working within
this very tight timeframe, Community Rights Counsel came
up to speed on the case and prepared more than half of
the City's rehearing petition, including the entire
discussion of the property claims and a hard-hitting
summary of the court's constitutional errors and their
far-reaching implications.
What's Next
CRC assisted Anchorage in preparing a petition for
rehearing en banc. The court granted the petition and
will rehear oral argument in the case on March 23, 2000.
Link to the full text of the court's opinion
in Thomas
v. Anchorage Equal Rights Comm'n.
Additional commentary on the
case:
Ninth
Circuit Finds a New Constitutional "Right" to
Discriminate Against Unmarried Tenants
February 19,
1999, Local Government Law Weekly
Court
Errs in Creating New Right to Exclude
February 22, 1999,
Long Beach Press-Telegram
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