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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The special concurrence advances the attractive proposition that since the Civil War and the more recent "great crusade for civil rights," racial discrimination in rental practices is so inherently evil as to bar an assertion of qualified immunity without the need for supporting case law or legislation. Special Concurrence at 1311. Certainly, we agree that racial discrimination, in any context, is evil and wish that the concept was as universally acknowledged and readily accepted as the special concurrence suggests. Regrettably however, in the years since the Civil War and the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the recognition of equality in all aspects of life has neither been axiomatic nor obvious, see, e.g., Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 16 S.Ct. 1138, 41 L.Ed. 256 (1896) (establishing the separate but equal doctrine almost 30 years after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment), but has emerged only gradually, see, e.g., Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954) (striking down segregation in public schools more than 80 years after the Fourteenth Amendment); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967) (striking down--only 30 years ago--a statute that criminalized interracial marriage). Indeed, Congress has recognized the continuing need for legislation to eradicate the cancer of racial discrimination by enacting measures such as the Voting Rights Act, Title VII, and, in this context, the Fair Housing Act

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