United States Ninth Circuit

In a disparate impact suit alleging the racially discriminatory provision of homeowner's insurance in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), the court of appeals stayed further proceedings, holding that: 1) the FHA prohibited discrimination in the denial and pricing of homeowner's insurance; and 2) the reverse-preemption standard set forth in the McCarran-Ferguson Act applied to claims brought under latter enacted civil rights statutes such as the FHA. The circuit court certifies to the Texas Supreme Court the question of whether Texas law permitted an insurance company to price insurance by using credit-score factors that had a racially disparate impact that, were it not for the McCarran-Ferguson Act, would violate the FHA.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/09/2010
• Published 04/09/2010

Judges

• Before ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, PAMELA ANN RYMER, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, SUSAN P. GRABER, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, WILLIAM A. FLETCHER, RONALD M. GOULD, RICHARD R. CLIFTON, MILAN D. SMITH, JR., SANDRA S. IKUTA and N. RANDY SMITH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Sanford Svetcov, Susan K. Alexander, Maria V. Morris, Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, San Francisco, CA; Andrew S. Friedman, Wendy J. Harrison, Gustave A. Hanson, Bonnett Fairbourn Friedman & Balint, P.C., Phoenix, AZ, for the plaintiffs-appellants., Linda F. Thome, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae the United States., D. Scott Chang, Stephen M. Dane, John P. Relman, Relman & Dane PLLC, Washington, D.C.; Joseph D. Rich, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C., for amici curiae National Fair Housing Alliance, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Greater Houston Fair Housing Center, Austin Tenants' Council, and Fair Housing Council of Greater San Antonio.


• For Appellees:
  
• Harriet S. Posner, Whitney Walters, Carl Alan Roth, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for the defendants-appellees.