WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) launched an investigation into the proposed rule “Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans,” 88 Fed. Reg. 25,293 (Proposed Rule) of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
The Proposed Rule directly conflicts with prohibitions on racial criteria for federal benefits, recently affirmed in the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll., which struck down affirmative action. 600 U.S. 181, 213 (2023).
Despite the Court in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. holding that past discrimination may not be used to justify discrimination in the present, the Proposed Rule does exactly that by citing “past discrimination” as criteria to be considered an eligible “underserved community” which it describes as “an important element of a plan.”
The Proposed Rule cites its authority for the Enterprises’ (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) “need to advance equity,” though it refuses to define what it means by “equity.”
Discrimination is always wrong, and the Biden Administration continues to take every opportunity to attempt to rectify wrongs in the past with wrongs in the present. AFL will not back down in its pursuit of transparency.
Read the FOIA here.
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