Supreme Court Rules 1866 Civil Rights Act Bans Private Housing Discrimination

The Supreme Court issues a 7-2 decision in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., holding that Congress can regulate private property sales to prevent racial discrimination under the Thirteenth Amendment’s power to eliminate “badges and incidents of slavery.” The case centers on Joseph Lee Jones, a Black man refused a home purchase in a white St. Louis County neighborhood by the Alfred H. Mayer Company due to his race. Both district and appeals courts dismiss his complaint based on established precedent that the 1866 Civil Rights Act applied only to state action, not private discrimination.

Reversing many precedents, the Supreme Court holds that the Civil Rights Act of 1866—stating all citizens have the same right to “inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property” as white citizens—prohibited both private and state-backed discrimination. The Court examines the Act’s history and language, concluding Congress intended to prohibit all racial discrimination in property transactions, not just by governments. The Thirteenth Amendment gave Congress power to eliminate all “badges and incidents of slavery,” including property rights restrictions, and Congress could “determine what are the badges and incidents of slavery, and translate that determination into effective legislation.”

The decision’s timing proves remarkable: argued April 1-2, 1968, two days before King’s assassination that precipitated passage of the Fair Housing Act on April 11. Justice Harlan’s dissent argues the majority misinterprets the 1866 law and that the new Fair Housing Act eliminates need for this decision relying on questionable history. Nevertheless, Jones significantly expands federal power to combat private racial discrimination in housing, establishing for the first time that Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power reaches private conduct, not just state action.