Citation
Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Civil Rights in a Desegregating America, 83 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1329 (2016).
Abstract
This Article examines what desegregation means for three bodies of civil rights law — housing discrimination, vote dilution, and school segregation. All three bodies historically relied on segregation in important ways: its perpetuation by housing practices led to disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act; it meant that minority groups were “geographically compact” as required by the Voting Rights Act; and it contributed to racially separated schools from which segregative intent was inferred in Brown and its progeny. The Article argues that all three doctrines are disrupted by desegregation — that each body of civil rights law must adapt to a less segregated America — and proposes how each should do so.