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Speaker 1: hosting Grasso and Greg Store discuss the Supreme Court ruling
Speaker 1: on whether the City of Miami could sue Wells Fargo
Speaker 1: and Bank of America for allegedly discriminatory lending practices. They
Speaker 1: speak to David Gans, director of the Human Rights, civil Rights,
Speaker 1: and Citizenship program at the Constitutional Accountability Center, and Matthew Nelson,
Speaker 1: the partner at the law firm Warner Norcross and Jutt. David,
Speaker 1: your group is calling this ruling of victory. What did
Speaker 1: you see in Justice Brier's opinion that you liked well? So,
Speaker 1: I think this is an extremely important ruling that says
Speaker 1: cities can sue told banks accountable for housing discrimination. The Court,
Speaker 1: in line with what it has said in prior cases,
Speaker 1: said under the Fair Housing Act, there's a very broad
Speaker 1: group of people who can get into the courthouse door
Speaker 1: to sue that includes both those who have been directly
Speaker 1: injured as well as others like cities. And the court
Speaker 1: rested it's it's holding on the fact that in I
Speaker 1: think four past cases, the court had affirmed a very
Speaker 1: broad view of who could sue under the Fair Housing Act,
Speaker 1: and the Court said Congress had ratified that, and so
Speaker 1: based on that reasoning, the city could sue. So this
Speaker 1: is a kind of a very important affirmation that cities
Speaker 1: play a crucial role in vindicating the promise of racial
Speaker 1: equality that the Fair Housing Act protects. Matthew, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a total win for cities, and it's going back to
Speaker 1: the lower court. So how do you consider this ruling? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's the ruling is a win for the
Speaker 1: civil justice system in that it reaffirms that liability only
Speaker 1: attaches to the direct consequences of misconduct, which is the
Speaker 1: principle that our legal system has held to for more
Speaker 1: than a century. And the idea here is that the
Speaker 1: alleged discriminatory lending here has to have directly caused injuries
Speaker 1: to the City of Miami for the City of Miami
Speaker 1: to recover damages. So although the court has said that
Speaker 1: the city of Miami can maintain the lawsuit they've remanded
Speaker 1: for the lower courses determine whether or not the City
Speaker 1: of Miami's injuries are direct and here. If you imagine that,
Speaker 1: for example, you have a neighbor who has allowed party
Speaker 1: that keeps you up, resulting and you giving an ineffective
Speaker 1: presentation to a client that results and lost business, that
Speaker 1: results in decreased revenue for you and layoffs of your employees.
Speaker 1: You see that at the end of that change, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to be able to have someone say, I
Speaker 1: consume my neighbor for the party that kept me up
Speaker 1: and here too. That's the question now that the court
Speaker 1: has to consider. Is the City of Miami too far
Speaker 1: detached from the alleged discriminatory practices to be able to
Speaker 1: actually recover damages. That's Matthew Nelson, a partner at Warner
Speaker 1: Norcross and Judd, and David Gans, director of the Human Rights,
Speaker 1: civil Rights, and Citizenship Program at the Constitutional Accountability Center,
Speaker 1: speaking to Bloomberg Law hostun Gresso and Greg Store. You
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