Paul, Weiss Files Amicus Brief in Fair Housing Act Appeal

Paul, Weiss filed an amicus brief in support of appellants in a Fourth Circuit appeal of a decision from the Eastern District of Virginia that held that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) did not prohibit a trailer park from requiring its predominantly Latino residents to provide proof of legal status as a condition of living at the park. The district court dismissed the claims of the plaintiffs – four husband-and-wife couples, only one partner of whom had the required papers – on the grounds that disparate impact claims under the FHA only applied to “long-entrenched” discriminatory practices and thus were not applicable here. The Paul, Weiss brief, submitted on behalf of four law and history professors, argued that not only that this was an unduly narrow interpretation of the FHA, which in fact requires no such showing to sustain a disparate impact claim, but also that Latinos have in fact been subject to a long-standing history of discrimination in the United States, in areas including but far from limited to housing.

The Paul, Weiss team was comprised of litigation partner Greg Laufer and associates Andrew Markquart, Paul Brachman and Andrew Kau.