US District Court Grants HUD's Summary Judgment Motion In Disparate Impact Case

Ten years after the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) first promulgated its disparate impact rule (the Rule), on September 19, the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted HUD's motion for summary judgment upholding the Rule.

HUD first announced the Rule in 2013. Following that, two insurance trade associations challenged the Rule as exceeding HUD's authority based on the premise that disparate impact claims were not permissible under the Fair Housing Act. In 2014 the court ruled that HUD had exceeded its authority in adopting the Rule, but in 2015 in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 576 US 519 (2015), the US Supreme Court held differently, and laid out certain parameters for disparate impact claims. The associations then argued that the Rule was still unlawful, based on its exceeding the parameters set by the Supreme Court. However, before the case could be heard based on