Dear Friends of FAIR,
We’re excited to update you on an important development in FAIR’s ongoing legal work to defend constitutional principles of equal treatment under the law.
Last October, FAIR filed FAIR v. Walker in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington with the support of our partners at Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), specifically targeting the constitutionality of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission’s Covenant Homeownership Program. At issue is a program that offers zero-interest mortgage loans and down payment assistance exclusively to first-time homebuyers who identify as “Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, Korean, or Asian Indian.”
The program requires applicants to demonstrate that they or their ancestors lived in Washington before the Fair Housing Act took effect in 1968 and meet income requirements. However, such assistance is not available to certain Washington homebuyers who do not identify with one of the eligible racial or ethnic groups. The program therefore explicitly excludes applicants based solely on their race or ethnicity, which is a clear violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting government discrimination based on immutable characteristics.
While FAIR’s claim was dismissed in June on a procedural technicality, we re-filed our complaint in federal court yesterday and strengthened our legal arguments to ensure our constitutional challenge moves forward. FAIR’s amended complaint seeks straightforward relief: a court declaration that race-based eligibility criteria are unconstitutional and a permanent injunction requiring race-neutral eligibility criteria. FAIR isn’t asking the court to eliminate taxpayer-funded housing assistance; we’re simply asking that it be provided fairly to all who need it.
It’s undeniable that Washington State faces a severe housing crisis, with more than a million new homes needed over the next 20 years to address immediate and future shortages. Yet the reality is that rising housing costs don’t discriminate; this is a crisis that impacts Washington residents of all backgrounds.
FAIR’s lawsuit highlights how this crisis affects real people facing real barriers. Our members in Washington are ready, willing and able to purchase a home but are ineligible for the assistance program based purely on their race. One of our members, the plaintiff identified in court documents as “A,” meets all program criteria except that she identifies as European-American.
FAIR supports efforts to uplift those facing financial insecurity and believes homeownership should be attainable for all. However, the Constitution is clear: government-funded programs cannot exclude individuals based on race or ethnicity.
This litigation is significant because it embodies FAIR’s core mission: advancing civil rights for all Americans based on our shared humanity rather than immutable characteristics. The Equal Protection Clause exists precisely to prevent the government from creating separate classes of citizens based on race or ethnic identity. Whether in education, employment, or housing, we believe constitutional principles of equal protection must be upheld consistently.
We will keep you updated as this case progresses through the federal court system. This fight for constitutional equality in housing assistance represents exactly the kind of principled advocacy FAIR was founded to pursue: defending civil rights for all Americans based on our shared dignity as human beings and working toward a truly inclusive society where opportunity is available to all, regardless of race or ethnicity.
As we at FAIR continue this important work, we remain grateful to our members and supporters who make these advocacy efforts possible. We rely on your generous support to continue our legal advocacy efforts to challenge discriminatory practices across the nation and promote fairness and equal treatment for all Americans.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. Together, we can build a society where individuals are judged by their character and qualifications rather than by immutable characteristics. Thank you for standing with FAIR in our ongoing mission to protect and defend universal equality!
With gratitude,
Monica Harris
Executive Director
An Evening with Stephen Reich: The Ideological Capture of Education
Stephen Reich is a former lawyer and current PhD student. His research concerns education’s capture by an ideological but evidence-poor Critical Theory, at the expense of cognitive science-informed best practices to effectively, efficiently, and equitably impart children with humanity’s most consequential knowledge and skills accumulated to date, necessary for both future innovation, and responsible participation in adult society.
Stephen’s upcoming doctoral research will examine the ideological underpinnings of teacher-training in Ontario and whether it is designed to prepare teachers for the reality of classroom teaching.
Stephen will touch upon how education has been captured at the ministerial level by Criticalism, and how learning science and a nationally-focused classical liberal curriculum which would benefit everybody has been cast aside for the ideological preferences of ministerial bureaucrats and ideologically captured educational academics. He is ready to propose a better way forward.
Stephen is a co-chair of University of Toronto's Heterodox Academy and a member of the organization’s national executive. Apart from his work in educational policy, Stephen is a former actor, and current choral director, vocalist and musical arranger.
Stephen will join us Wednesday, August 6th at 7:00pm ET via Zoom. You can register below.
We hope you will join us!
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Interesting that of all the E Asians only Koreans are included in the list.
All in all a pretty nutty program which one would assume would have gotten the ax all by itself long ago. I have to wonder how many similar programs exist
Good. Race is not a useful way to sort people. It can be evil, but from a public policy perspective it is also just crude. It doesn't accomplish even what progressives should want to see out of these programs because the distinction is so clumsy. In terms of precision, government can do better. In terms of constitutionality and justice, we must insist.