Southwest Fair Housing Council v. Mdwid, 17 F.4th 950 (2021)

Citation: Southwest Fair Housing Council v. Mdwid, 17 F.4th 950 (2021)
Parent Document: Southwest Fair Housing Council v. Mdwid, 17 F.4th 950 (2021)
Jurisdiction: United States (federal)
Effective Date: 2021-11-12
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/5296996/southwest-fair-housing-council-v-mdwid/ ↗

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        “Significance” in the context of disparate-impact claims is not
limited to statistical significance; “practical significance,” which
examines whether minor statistical disparities have any discriminatory
effect in practice, also plays a role. See Brnovich, 141 S. Ct. at 2343 n.17
(“Statistical significance may provide evidence that something besides
random error is at work, but it does not necessarily determine causes, and
as the dissent acknowledges, it is not the be-all and end-all of disparate-
impact analysis.” (cleaned up)); id. (“[S]ignificant differences . . . are not
evidence that [what is at work] is legally or practically important.
Statisticians distinguish between statistical and practical significance to
make the point. When practical significance is lacking—when the size
of a disparity is negligible—there is no reason to worry about statistical
significance.” (quoting Federal Judicial Center, Reference Manual on
Scientific Evidence 252 (3d ed. 2011)); id. at 2358 n.4 (Kagan, J.,
dissenting) (“I agree with the majority that ‘very small differences’
among racial groups do not matter. . . . In addition, there may be some
threshold of what is sometimes called ‘practical significance’—a level
of inequality that, even if statistically meaningful, is just too trivial for
the legal system to care about.”).
24 SW. FAIR HOUSING V. MARICOPA DOMESTIC WATER

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