An outpouring of amicus briefs from the civil rights community supported an important Relman Colfax case that the full Second Circuit is scheduled to hear en banc in September 2020.
The case, Francis v. Kings Park Manor, alleges that a landlord and its agents violated the Fair Housing Act and other laws by doing nothing about severe neighbor-on-neighbor racial harassment even after being informed of it multiple times. A Second Circuit panel held that a must take racial harassment as seriously as it takes other tenant misconduct, and that it constitutes intentional discrimination for a landlord to selectively ignore racial misconduct; the Second Circuit then voted to rehear the case en banc.
Numerous civil rights groups and governmental bodies filed briefs in the en banc proceeding supporting Relman Colfax’s position. They explained the broader importance to creating truly integrated living environments of landlords having the responsibility to address discriminatory harassment based on race, sex, disability, and other protected classes.
All the briefs filed before the en banc court are available here. The en banc argument is scheduled for September 24, 2020.
The Relman Colfax case team is led by Sasha Samberg-Champion, John Relman, and Yiyang Wu, with paralegal assistance from Abigail Moats.