Luz Gonzalez v. Lee County Housing Authority, 161 F.3d 1290 (1998)

Citation: Luz Gonzalez v. Lee County Housing Authority, 161 F.3d 1290 (1998)
Parent Document: Luz Gonzalez v. Lee County Housing Authority, 161 F.3d 1290 (1998)
Jurisdiction: United States (federal)
Effective Date: 1998-12-02
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/759590/luz-gonzalez-v-lee-county-housin... ↗

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Section 3617 renders it unlawful to "interfere with any person ... on account of his having aided or encouraged any other person in the exercise or enjoyment of ... any right granted or protected by section 3603, 3604, 3605, or 3606 of this title." Section 3604, in turn, bars racial discrimination in the "terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith...." 42 U.S.C. § 3604(b). Section 3617, read in conjunction with section 3604, therefore, straightforwardly states the unsurprising (and presumably uncontroversial) proposition that the Fair Housing Act prohibits "interfering" with any person because she "aided or encouraged" another person's exercise of her right to rent property free from racial discrimination.37 Any reasonable public official, having read the plain terms of this statute, certainly would have understood that federal law makes it unlawful to terminate an employee for refusing to discriminate against potential tenants on the basis of race. To the extent any federal statute, standing alone, can provide a potential defendant with concrete notice, "that is, truly compel (not just suggest or allow or raise a question about), the conclusion for every like-situated, reasonable government agent that what [she] is doing violates federal law," we believe that section 3617 provides such notice in the circumstances of this case. Lassiter, 28 F.3d at 1150. Cf. Baggett, 1997 WL 151544, at * 22.38 Just as generally stated constitutional principles, standing alone, without materially similar case support, would have provided fair warning to the Supreme Court's hypothetical welfare officials who sold foster children into slavery, see Lanier, 520 U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 1227-28, the statutory provisions at issue in this case, standing alone, provide fair warning and thus clearly establish that the Fair Housing Act prohibits firing an employee for refusing to discriminate against tenants on the basis of race.

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