Opinion ID: 770594
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The FHA as a Justification

Text: 53 The HUD officials argue that their actions constituted lawful efforts to enforce the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The purpose of that statute is to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States. 42 U.S.C. 3601. The FHA prohibits, among other things, owners and landlords from refusing to sell or rent housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. See id. at 3604. 11 The FHA also makes it unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any person in the exercise or enjoyment of . . . any right granted or protected by section 3603, 3604, 3605, or 3606 of this title. Id. at 3617, 3602(f). A violation of this provision is considered a discriminatory housing practice  for which an aggrieved person may file an administrative complaint with HUD. Id. at 3610(a)(1)(A)(i). If this occurs, HUD must serve notices upon the complainant 12 and the respondents 13 and make an investigation of the alleged discriminatory housing practice and complete such investigation within 100 days after the filing of the complaint . . . unless it is impracticable to do so. Id. at 3610(a)(1)(B)(iv). 54 We have applied 3617 broadly to cover a variety of practices that have the effect of interfering with the exercise of fair housing rights protected by the FHA. See United States v. City of Hayward, 36 F.3d 832, 835 (9th Cir. 1994) ( `Interference' ranges from racially motivated firebombings, to exclusionary zoning, and insurance redlining.) (citations omitted). In theory, 3617 could be interpreted even more broadly, so that a wide range of speech regarding the housing rights of others could be investigated and sanctioned. One person's persuasive editorial on a zoning dispute, for instance, might well interfere with another person's ability to secure housing. So construed, however, 3617 would quickly run afoul of the First Amendment principles discussed above. 55 For this reason, other courts have recognized that a speaker's advocacy of his views, however ill-advised, uninformed, and even distasteful, can amount to a violation of 3617 of the FHA only in the event that the advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent violence and is likely in fact to do so. We agree. See Michigan Protection & Advocacy Serv., Inc. v. Babin, 799 F. Supp. 695, 720 (E.D. Mich. 1992), aff'd, 18 F.3d 337 (6th Cir. 1994); see also United States v. Wagner, No. 3:94-CV-2540-H, 1995 WL 841924, at  (N.D. Tex. Dec. 11, 1995) ([T]he Pines have not presented evidence that the petitioning activities were likely to incite imminent lawless action, despite the overtones of the leaflets.) (citing Brandenburg, 395 U.S. at 447). Threats of violence and other forms of coercion and intimidation directed against individuals or groups are, however, not advocacy, and are subject to regulation or prohibition. See United States v. Gilbert, 813 F.2d 1523, 1529-30 (9th Cir. 1987) (holding that criminal prosecution under FHA of person who mailed letters and flyers threatening to murder whites who aided blacks and other minorities was not precluded by First Amendment). In this case, no such acts were alleged. 56 Although the HUD officials now concede that the plaintiffs' protest activities of writing newspaper articles, leafleting, etc., [were], of course, constitutionally protected forms of speech, they suggest parenthetically in their brief that their investigation was necessary to determine whether the flyers distributed by the plaintiffs involved an incitement to imminent lawless action. This suggestion is not supported by the record. HRI executive director Lawless sent a letter to the San Francisco Office that enclosed the relevant flyers two weeks before she signed the complaint. The officials did not need to gather additional information before determining whether these flyers incited imminent lawless action or not. That the First Amendment protected the authors and distributors of the flyers was plain. 57