Explanations

Federal and state civil rights legislation, including the Fair Housing Act, broadly prohibit and define discrimination in housing based on protected characteristics such as race, color, religion (creed), and national origin. These discriminatory acts are considered:

• Unlawful: The Fair Housing Act explicitly states that a “discriminatory housing practice” is “an act that is unlawful”. The act prohibits discrimination practices concerning the sale, rental, and financing of residential real estate properties based on race, national origin, religion, and gender, making such actions unlawful.
• Illegal: The Fair Housing Act makes “discrimination illegal on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, familial status, source of income, or disability for the purpose of sale or rental of residential property”. Discrimination in advertising, real estate sales, and mortgage lending is also made illegal by this act. Furthermore, specific discriminatory practices like “redlining” are identified as “illegal action under the Fair Housing Act”.
• Unenforceable: The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) ruled that courts “could not enforce racial covenants on real estate properties”. This means that any contractual terms or private restrictions that promote such discrimination are legally unenforceable. Private restrictions containing racial discrimination “are not have any legal effect”. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 guarantees all citizens the same right to purchase, lease, sell, and inherit property regardless of race, implying that any attempt to restrict these rights discriminatorily would be unenforceable.

Since all three descriptions—unenforceable, unlawful, and illegal—accurately apply to discrimination in housing based on race, color, creed, or national origin under civil rights legislation, “All of the above” is the correct answer.

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