Opinion ID: 562670
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Heading: the realtors' challenge to the apache street affirmative

Text: MARKETING PLAN 53 The Realtors contend that SSHC and Park Forest violated the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3601, et seq., and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in initiating the affirmative marketing plan for the three Apache Street homes. The trial court held that the Realtors lacked standing to pursue the equal protection claim because the equal protection claim ... rest[s] on legal rights of minority home buyers rather than those of homesellers. South-Suburban Housing Center, 713 F.Supp. at 1089-90. The court reached the merits of the Realtors' Fair Housing Act challenge and held that neither SSHC nor Park Forest violated the Act during the marketing of the Apache Street homes. 8
54 Park Forest contends that the court erred in concluding that the Realtors possessed standing to bring their Fair Housing Act claim, while the Realtors urge that the trial court erred in holding that they lacked standing to pursue their equal protection claim. 55 In Penny Saver Publications, Inc. v. Village of Hazel Crest, 905 F.2d 150, 154 (7th Cir.1990), we observed that: 56 The first element of the standing inquiry that [a plaintiff] 'must satisfy in this Court is the case or controversy requirement of Art. III of the United States Constitution.' Secretary of State of Maryland v. J.H. Munson Co., 467 U.S. 947, 955, 104 S.Ct. 2839, 2846, 81 L.Ed.2d 786 (1983). The relevant inquiry for a case or controversy is to determine whether a plaintiff has shown an injury to himself that is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision. Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization, 426 U.S. 26, 38 [96 S.Ct. 1917, 1924, 48 L.Ed.2d 450] (1976). 57 Indeed, other than the requirement that the purported injury must be likely to be redressed by a favorable decision, 9 injury in fact is the only requirement to achieve standing under the Fair Housing Act, for the United States Supreme Court has held that: 58  'Congress intended standing under Sec. 812 [of the Fair Housing Act] to extend to the full limits of Art. III' and ... the courts accordingly lack the authority to create prudential barriers to standing in suits brought under that section. [Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 103, n. 9 [99 S.Ct. 1601, 1609, n. 9, 60 L.Ed.2d 66] (1979) ]. Thus, the sole requirement for standing to sue under Sec. 812 is the Art. III minima of injury in fact: that the plaintiff alleged that as a result of the defendant's actions he has suffered 'a distinct and palpable injury,' Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2206, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). 59 Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363, 372, 102 S.Ct. 1114, 1121, 71 L.Ed.2d 214 (1982). 60 The Realtors assert that they suffered an injury in fact based upon their role as the representative of the individual interests of their member realtors. As this case demonstrates, the Realtors have interpreted the AMP as applied to the Apache Street homes to be in violation of the fair housing obligations and the Realtors' code of ethics. Thus, the threat of professional discipline inhibits member realtors from handling the listings involved. We are convinced that as organizations responsible for advancing both the professional ethics and the economic well being of the individual realtors, the Realtors have suffered an injury in fact as a result of the damage occurring to member realtors from their inability to handle the Apache Street listings. Thus, under Havens, the Realtors' assertion of a redressible injury in fact is sufficient to provide them with standing to pursue their Fair Housing Act claim. Accord Gorski v. Troy, 929 F.2d 1183, 1188-1189 (7th Cir.1991) (Congress intended standing under the FHA 'to extend to the full limits of Art. III....'  (Quoting Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. at 103 n. 9, 99 S.Ct. at 1609 n. 9)). 61 In addition to demonstrating injury in fact, the Realtors must also satisfy prudential standing concerns in order to pursue their claim based upon the equal protection rights of potential black home buyers. 62 When a person or entity seeks standing to advance the constitutional rights of others, we ask two questions: first, has the litigant suffered some injury in fact, adequate to satisfy Article III's case-or-controversy requirement; and second, do prudential considerations which we have identified in our prior cases point to permitting the litigant to advance the claim? 63 Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States, 491 U.S. 617, 109 S.Ct. 2646, 2651 n. 3, 105 L.Ed.2d 528 (1989). 64 The trial judge concluded that the Realtors lacked standing to litigate the equal protection claims because [a]n equal protection claim would clearly rest on legal rights of minority home buyers rather than those of home sellers. South-Suburban Housing Center, 713 F.Supp. at 1089-90. Upon our examination of the Realtors' equal protection contentions, we are convinced that the rights asserted in the complaint can only be classified as those of minority home buyers rather than those of the Realtors themselves in that the claim is phrased in language which states that the affirmative marketing plan violates the equal protection rights of potential minority home buyers. Thus, the Realtors are without standing to pursue this alleged injury to minority home buyers unless the Realtors fall somehow within an exception to the prudential rule against third-party standing. 65 The Supreme Court has recognized that the prudential rule against standing to assert the constitutional rights of third persons, [l]ike any general rule ... should not be applied where its underlying justifications are absent. Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 114, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 2874, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976) (plurality opinion). In determining third-party standing courts are to consider the relationship of the litigant to the person whose rights are being asserted; the ability of the person to advance his own rights; and the impact of the litigation on third-party interests. Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered, 109 S.Ct. at 2651 n. 3. 66 In examining the relationship between the Realtor litigants and the potential black home buyers whose rights they seek to vindicate, we must examine whether the enjoyment of the [potential home buyer's] right is inextricably bound up with the activity the litigant wishes to pursue. Singleton, 428 U.S. at 114, 96 S.Ct. at 2874 (plurality opinion). Unlike Caplin & Drysdale, where the attorney's right to a fee was bound up with a specific client's claim that forfeiture of his assets interfered with his Sixth Amendment right to counsel, or Singleton, where the physician's interest in payment for his abortion services was closely associated with the patient's alleged right to government payment for an abortion, the Realtors have failed to demonstrate a true relationship between their interest in pursuing particular real estate marketing practices and the constitutional rights of specific potential black home buyers. Cf. Rothner v. City of Chicago, 929 F.2d 297, 301 (7th Cir.1991) (permitting distributor and operator of video games to pursue alleged First Amendment challenge of ordinance prohibiting minors from playing video games between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on days when the city's schools are in session). Indeed the record clearly establishes that the Realtors have been unable to point to a single minority home buyer who was deprived of his or her equal protection rights as a result of the Apache Street affirmative marketing plan. See South-Suburban Housing Center, 713 F.Supp. at 1088 ([Realtors] offered no evidence respecting any persons who sought to purchase or rent homes and who were denied that right by the SSHC, or that the SSHC denied or made housing available to anyone, or in any way restricted or limited anyone's housing choice....). 67 The relationship between the Realtors and black home buyers does not reflect the similarity in interest which would lead to the conclusion that the relationship between the litigant and the third party may be such that the former is fully, or very nearly, as effective a proponent of the [constitutional] right as the latter. Singleton, 428 U.S. at 115, 96 S.Ct. at 2874 (plurality opinion). Although the Realtors have a strong philosophical commitment to a housing market in which equal opportunity is realized solely through color blind marketing, since no potential black home buyers are involved in this suit, it is unclear as to whether their priorities are similar. One of the prudential reasons for the rule against third party standing is that the courts should not adjudicate [constitutional] rights unnecessarily, and it may be that in fact the holders of those rights either do not wish to assert them, or will be able to enjoy them regardless of whether the in-court litigant is successful or not. Singleton, 428 U.S. at 113-14, 96 S.Ct. at 2874 (plurality opinion). We refuse to address the constitutional issue of an equal protection violation until such time as it is presented by a potential home buyer, as we, like the Supreme Court, believe that third parties themselves usually will be the best proponents of their own rights. Singleton, 428 U.S. at 114, 96 S.Ct. at 2874 (plurality opinion). 68 The second potential exception to the rule against third party standing turns upon the ability of the [third party] to advance his own rights, 10 and whether there is some genuine obstacle to [the personal] assertion 11 of the constitutional right. We are unable to discern anything in the record that would prevent black home buyers from filing a constitutional challenge to an affirmative marketing program directed toward white home buyers. Thus, the exception relating to third parties who are unable to effectively assert their own rights fails to aid the Realtors in their quest for standing to assert their equal protection claim. 69 The final factor considered in determining whether an exception to the rule against third party standing is warranted is the impact of the litigation on third-party interests. Caplin & Drysdale, 109 S.Ct. at 2651 n. 3. Based on the record before us, we are not in a position to determine whether potential black home buyers would desire the Apache Street AMP to be invalidated, thereby decreasing competition from white home buyers for these properties; nor are we able to ascertain whether they would want the affirmative marketing plan upheld in order to promote developing and maintaining an integrated community in Park Forest. Hence, we are unconvinced that allowing the Realtors to assert the equal protection claim would, in fact, further the interests of potential black home buyers. 70 We conclude that while the Realtors have fulfilled the injury in fact requirement for bringing their Fair Housing Act challenge to the Apache Street affirmative marketing program, they have failed to overcome the prudential limitations on standing that preclude them from asserting the equal protection-based constitutional claims of black home buyers.
71 Both Park Forest and SSHC urge that the 1985 sale of the three Apache Street homes has rendered moot the Realtors' Fair Housing Act challenge to the Apache Street affirmative marketing plan. 12 The Realtors' Fair Housing Act challenge to the Apache Street Plan requests damages and declaratory relief in addition to injunctive relief. In Penny Saver, we held that although a subsequent development (amendment of a challenged ordinance) had rendered a request for injunctive relief moot: 72 This is not to say that Penny Saver's entire action is moot. Rather, Penny Saver still has a viable claim for declaratory and monetary relief. The fact that the Ordinance has been amended subsequent to the commencement of this case 'does not moot plaintiff's claim for either declaratory or monetary relief.' Black v. Brown, 513 F.2d 652 (7th Cir.1975) (new regulations adopted by prison officials do not moot declaratory or monetary claim on the original regulations). As the Supreme Court concluded in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 109 S.Ct. 706, 713, 102 L.Ed.2d 854 (1989), the expiration of an ordinance does not render the controversy moot because there still remains a live controversy between the parties as to whether the ordinance was unlawful thus entitling the plaintiff to damages. The Court has also previously stated 'that voluntary cessation of allegedly illegal conduct does not deprive the tribunal of power to hear and determine the case, i.e., does not make the case moot.' United States v. W.T. Grant Co., 345 U.S. 629, 632, 73 S.Ct. 894, 897, 97 L.Ed. 1303 (1953). See also Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 8-9, 98 S.Ct. 1554, 1560, 56 L.Ed.2d 30 (1978) (respondent's claim for actual and punitive damages arising from termination of service saves this cause from the bar of mootness); Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 499, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 1952, 23 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969) ('A court may grant declaratory relief even though it chooses not to issue an injunction' because that claim is moot.) 73 905 F.2d at 153. Hence, the Village's amendment of its ordinance after the suit had been filed failed to invalidate Penny Saver's claims. Likewise, the sale of the three Apache Street homes after the initiation of this case fails to moot the Realtors' claims for damages. Thus, the Realtors' action is not moot, and a case or controversy exists over which we may properly exercise subject matter jurisdiction.
74 The Realtors allege that SSHC and Park Forest violated sections 804(a) and 804(c) of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3604(a) and (c), in promulgating and implementing the Apache Street affirmative marketing plan. These sections provide as follows: 75 As made applicable by section 3603 of this title and except as exempted by sections 3603(b) and 3607 of this title, it shall be unlawful-- 76 (a) To refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 77