Opinion ID: 3015223
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: FHAA Background

Text: The Fair Housing Act (“FHA”), passed by Congress as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of, inter alia, race, gender, and national origin. 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq. Under the FHAA, which Congress passed in 1988 to extend the coverage of the FHA to include people with disabilities, it is unlawful: To discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection 15 with such dwelling, because of a handicap of– (A) that person; or (B) a p e r s o n r e s i d i n g i n o r intending to reside in that dwelling after it is so sold, rented, or made available; or (C) any person associated with that person. 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(2). By its express terms, this section applies to “the provision of services or facilities” to a dwelling, such as sewer service, and courts have specifically allowed claims under this section to be brought against municipalities and land use authorities. See generally Lapid-Laurel, L.L.C. v. Zoning Bd. of Adjustment, 284 F.3d 442 (3d Cir. 2002). Further, under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B), discrimination includes “a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.” Plaintiffs alleging violations of the FHAA under these sections may bring three general types of claims: (1) intentional discrimination claims (also called disparate treatment claims) 16 and (2) disparate impact claims, both of which arise under § 3604(f)(2), and (3) claims that a defendant refused to make “reasonable accommodations,” which arise under § 3604(f)(3)(B). See Lapid-Laurel, 284 F.3d at 448 n.3. To evaluate these claims under the FHAA, courts have typically adopted the analytical framework of their analogues in employment law, including their coordinate burden-shifting analyses once plaintiff has made a prima facie showing of discrimination under a specific claim.5 5 See Lapid-Laurel, 284 F.3d at 466 (“[W]hen reviewing disparate impact claims brought under the FHAA, we have borrowed from the framework of Title VII disparate impact claims.”); see also, e.g., Tsombanidis v. W. Haven Fire Dep’t, 352 F.3d 565, 575 (2d Cir. 2003) (“When examining disparate impact claims under the FHAA and ADA, we use Title VII as a starting point.”); Gamble v. City of Escondido, 104 F.3d 300, 304 (9th Cir. 1997) (“We apply Title VII discrimination analysis in examining [FHA] discrimination claims.”); Larkin v. Mich. Dep’t of Social Servs., 89 F.3d 285, 289 (6th Cir. 1996) (“Most courts applying the FHA, as amended by the FHAA, have analogized it to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . . . .”); Bangerter v. Orem City Corp., 46 F.3d 1491, 1503 (10th Cir. 1995) (looking to “the language of the FHAA itself, and to the manner in which analogous provisions of Title VII have been interpreted” in evaluating a disparate treatment claim). 17
claims & facially discriminatory classification claims Generally, to prevail on a disparate treatment claim, a plaintiff must demonstrate that some discriminatory purpose was a “motivating factor” behind the challenged action. See Cmty. Hous. Trust v. Dep’t of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs, 257 F. Supp. 2d 208, 225 (D.D.C. 2003) (“It is well settled that a defendant’s decision or action constitutes disparate treatment, or intentional discrimination, when a person’s disability was a ‘motivating factor’ behind the challenged action or decision.”); Tsombanidis v. City of W. Haven, 129 F. Supp. 2d 136, 151 (D. Conn. 2001) (citing Arlington Heights v. Metro. Hous. Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 265 (1977)). The discriminatory purpose need not be malicious or invidious, nor need it figure in “solely, primarily, or even predominantly” into the motivation behind the challenged action. Cmty. Hous. Trust, 257 F. Supp. 2d at 225; Tsombanidis, 129 F. Supp. 2d at 151; see also Horizon House, 804 F. Supp. at 696 (“In order to prove intentional discrimination it is not necessary to show an evil or hostile motive. It is a violation of the FHAA to discriminate even if the motive was benign or paternalistic.”). The plaintiff is only required to “show that a protected characteristic played a role in the defendant’s decision to treat her differently.” Cmty. Hous. Trust, 257 F. Supp. 2d at 225 (citing Arlington Heights, 429 U.S. at 265). 18 Where a regulation or “policy facially discriminates on the basis of the protected trait, in certain circumstances it ‘may constitute per se or explicit . . . discrimination’” because “the protected trait by definition plays a role in the decision-making process, inasmuch as the policy explicitly classifies people on that basis.” DiBiase v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., 48 F.3d 719, 726 (3d Cir. 1995) (quoting EEOC v. Elgin Teachers Ass’n, 780 F. Supp. 1195, 1197 (N.D. Ill. 1991)). Hence, where a plaintiff demonstrates that the challenged action involves disparate treatment through explicit facial discrimination, or a facially discriminatory classification, “a plaintiff need not prove the malice or discriminatory animus of a defendant.” Bangerter v. Orem City Corp., 46 F.3d 1491, 1501 (10th Cir. 1995). Rather, the focus is on the “explicit terms of the discrimination.” Int’l Union, United Auto. Aerospace & Agric. Implement Workers v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 499 U.S. 187, 199 (1991).
“Proxy” theory Consistent with the focus on language rather than a showing of discriminatory animus in evaluating facially discriminatory classification claims, courts have developed a “proxy” theory for such claims, recognizing that a regulation or policy cannot “use a technically neutral classification as a proxy to evade the prohibition of intentional discrimination,” such as classifications based on gray hair (as a proxy for age) or service 19 dogs or wheelchairs (as proxies for handicapped status). McWright v. Alexander, 982 F.2d 222, 228 (7th Cir. 1992). For example, in Erie County Retirees Ass’n v. County of Erie, we concluded that an employer violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) by offering Medicare-eligible retirees different health coverage from that offered to non-Medicare-eligible retirees because “Medicare status is a direct proxy for age,” as eligibility “‘follow[s] ineluctably upon attaining age 65.’” 220 F.3d 193, 211 (3d Cir. 2000) (alteration in original) (quoting Erie County Retirees Ass’n v. County of Erie, 91 F. Supp. 2d 860, 867 (W.D. Pa. 1999)). Such a situation was, we explained, distinguishable from the situation in Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, where an employer’s termination of an employee a few weeks prior to attaining ten years of service required for the vesting of pension benefits was held by the Supreme Court not to be disparate treatment under the ADEA because, although age and years of service may “correlate,” they are “analytically distinct . . . and thus it is incorrect to say that a decision based on years of service is necessarily ‘age based.’” 507 U.S. 604, 611 (1993). Our conclusion in Erie County that Medicare status is “an age-based criterion” was consistent with the reasoning of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Johnson v. New York, 49 F.3d 75 (2d Cir. 1995). There, the court held that an air base’s termination of a security guard when the guard attained age 60 and could not maintain active status in the Air National Guard due to forced resignation in that organization violated the ADEA because the plaintiff’s “age and termination [we]re 20 inextricably linked” and the sole cause of plaintiff’s loss of dual status and his consequent termination was his age. Id. at 79-80.6
Regardless of whether plaintiff frames a disparate treatment claim under the FHAA as one alleging discriminatory animus or one alleging a facially discriminatory classification, the most fundamental element of the claim is that plaintiff must demonstrate that defendant’s alleged discrimination was “because of a handicap.” 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(2). This requirement, plainly read from the language of the FHAA, is very often glossed over or, perhaps, so obvious as not worthy of discussion.7 Here, however, it does appear to us to be so 6 Consistent with Johnson Controls and DiBiase, we also noted in Erie County that whether the employer possessed a “malevolent motive or acted on the basis of hostile age-based stereotypes [wa]s irrelevant” as “a policy explicitly based on a prohibited factor . . . is illegal regardless of the underlying motive.” 220 F.3d at 212 (quoting Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. at 199-200). 7 For example, in a claim alleging discriminatory animus, where plaintiff adduces evidence that defendant had an “intent” to discriminate, the showing of intent easily satisfies to prove the proscribed “basis.” However, “intent” to discriminate and “basis” for discrimination are fundamentally different concepts. “Intent” need not be proven in a facially discriminatory 21 obvious and thus the focus of our inquiry on this point is whether “handicapped” or “disabled” status–the protected trait under the FHAA–was being used as the basis for different treatment. Cf. DiBiase, 48 F.3d at 726 (explaining that inquiry involves whether a “policy facially discriminates on the basis of the protected trait” and “explicitly classifies people on that basis”) (emphasis added). In the context of a facially discriminatory classification claim, to determine whether the basis of the alleged discrimination is indeed handicapped status, we must examine the language of the challenged regulation or policy, aided, if applicable, by any evidence of record that informs the analysis. For example, as we indicated above, a classification based on “service dogs” could, in many contexts, constitute a proxy for discrimination “because of” a handicap. However, were the challenged regulation to require “all domesticated dogs” to submit to mandatory vaccination, the express inclusion of “service dogs” would not discriminate “because of” a handicap, it would discriminate because a service dog is a “domesticated dog.” Here, we need to determine whether classification claim or in a disparate impact claim, both of which arise under § 3604(f)(2). However, to make out any claim for discrimination (under the FHAA or another law) the improper “basis” must be shown to be at the heart of the classification or conduct. 22 different treatment of a “personal care home” was necessarily “disability based.”