fair housing

Ad for Christian Roommate Equals Housing Discrimination

Submitted by wojo on Thu, 2006-02-16 11:51.

Those crazy liberals are at it again. I'm sure some of the postings were in violation of fair housing, but this mostly seems like a stretch, and a ridiculous one at that. A group of Chicago lawyers must know that publishers are hardly liable for the ad content in their publications. More specifically, internet sites are not liable for user posted content. That said, what type of bigot would post for "one nice quiet person?" That crosses the line. We all know what "nice quite person" is code for: some nice quiet old lady...like, maybe, Rosa Parks.

craigslist Disputes "Fair" Housing Lawsuit

The Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is suing craigslist for 100 allegedly discriminatory ads posted by our Chicago users in a 6 month period, out of 200,000 housing ads submitted to chicago.craigslist.org in that timeframe. While craigslist takes fair housing issues very seriously, and it's extremely important that we do everything we can to assist our users in promoting fair housing for everyone, the 100 ads cited were a little surprising. Some were roommate ads involving constitutionally protected speech and the right to free association, such as "prefer christian roommate", or were ads containing incidental and harmless remarks such as "near St Gertrude's church," and "Buddhist temple nearby." Others simply celebrated the diversity and tolerance of the local community ("vibrant southwest Hispanic neighborhood offering great classical Mexican culture, restaurants, and businesses"), or sought to appeal to some groups without excluding anyone ("Great apartment for graduate students, married couple, or small family"). And for a few it is difficult to determine what protected classification is at issue ("wants one nice quiet person").