Regionalism

An opportunity to stop AFFH [UPDATED]

Featured image Senator Mike Lee has proposed an amendment that would defund President Obama’s overreaching and coercive Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation. The amendment is expected to reach the Senate floor this week. The Lee Amendment is straightforward. It simply says that community development block grants, which have been around for more than 40 years, can be spent by local communities as they see fit to put affordable housing where they »

Judge refuses to accept brief raising free speech issues stemming from “fair housing” case

Featured image I have written many times about how “regionalism” and its handmaiden “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) are, in effect, an attempt by the left to dictate the way Americans will live. A scheme this radical is bound to produce strong local opposition. Therefore, though deeply disturbing, it’s not surprising that regionalism and AFFH have resulted in an attempt to tell an elected local official what he will say. I described »

Free speech make way; here comes Obama-style regionalism

Featured image We have written about how “regionalism” and its handmaiden “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) are, in effect, an attempt by the left to dictate the way Americans will live. Now, we see that they also entail an attempt to tell elected officials what they must say. This has become apparent from efforts to muzzle Westchester Country Executive Rob Astorino. Westchester County, New York is ground zero in the left’s push »

Dubuque isn’t liking AFFH; neither will the rest of America

Featured image I wrote here about how the federal government, pursuant to its Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) agenda, is forcing the city of Dubuque, Iowa to provide low-income housing to residents of Chicago. As in almost all of my writing about AFFH, I relied on the reporting of my friend Stanley Kurtz. In response to Kurtz’s article, Dubuque’s city manager stated that the article is “not an accurate representation of Dubuque’s »

AFFH-world comes to Iowa

Featured image In discussing the radical implications of President Obama’s “Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing” rule (AFFH), I typically point to what happened in Westchester County, New York as a sneak preview. But Stanley Kurtz directs our attention to an even more chilling example — Dubuque, Iowa. In Westchester County, Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development forced the local government to build low-income housing in an upscale community and to encourage people »

The larger meaning of Rahm Emanuel’s woes

Featured image One of the underreported stories of 2015, it seems to, was Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago crisis. Elected to a second term as mayor just last spring, it’s now unclear whether he will be able to cling to office following the police shootings that are roiling Chi-town. The Wall Street Journal reports: Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut short a holiday break in Cuba amid a wave of criticism at home that isn’t letting »

Last chance to block Obama’s diktat on how we shall live

Featured image This week marks the moment of truth for the effort to defund President Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation — a stunningly ambitious attempt to force Americans to change the way they live. AFFH seeks to use the power of the national government to create communities of a certain kind, each having what the federal government deems an appropriate mix of economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. The moment of »

Insist on the Gosar amendment

Featured image President Obama’s “Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) is a stunningly ambitious attempt to force Americans to change the way they live. In essence, it seeks to use the power of the national government to create communities of a certain kind, each having what the federal government deems an appropriate mix of economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. I’ve written about concept here and here (among other posts). Readers may recall that »

The fight against AFFH comes to the Senate [With Comment by John]

Featured image We’ve covered the efforts of House Republicans, led by Rep. Paul Gosar, to block the Obama administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation — Obama’s hook for controlling local governments and dictating how Americans shall live. The House has passed Gosar’s amendment to defund AFFH, and he has written stand-alone legislation to repeal the rule. Now, Mike Lee has introduced a bill in the Senate to defund AFFH. Lee’s co-sponsors »

“Fair Housing” comes to Hillary’s home town

Featured image It’s not uncommon for constituents to visit their elected officials to ask for relief from government abuse. Yesterday, an elected official visited a constituent for the same purpose: Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino walked up to the gated entrance to the Clinton home in this leafy hamlet on Friday, telling the guard he wanted to see Hillary. . . . Astorino, a Republican, had summoned reporters to the cul-de-sac outside »

In housing case, Justice Kennedy’s eyes are wide shut

Featured image I wrote here about yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. By a 5-4 vote, with Justice Kennedy writing for the majority, the Court held that the Fair Housing Act allows lawsuits based on disparate impact. Usually in a case like this, it is the dissent that warns of the dire consequences that may well flow from the »

Supreme Court finds disparate impact claims cognizable in housing cases

Featured image The Supreme Court has just affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that the Fair Housing Act allows lawsuits based on disparate impact – that is, an allegation that a law or practice has a discriminatory effect, even if it wasn’t based on a discriminatory purpose. The case is Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. The vote was 5-4. Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion. Without reading »

Gosar amendment passes in the House

Featured image Last night the House, by a vote of 229-193, passed the Gosar amendment which blocks any funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to enforce President Obama’s affirmatively furthering fair housing rule (AFFH). AFFH is an initiative to use the power of the national government to create communities of a certain kind, each having what the federal government deems an appropriate mix of economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. »

Tell Congress to block Obama’s transformative housing power grab

Featured image I have written several times about the Obama administration’s proposed rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), an attempt to dictate how we shall live. In essence, President Obama seeks to use the power of the national government to create communities of a certain kind, each having what the federal government deems an appropriate mix of economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. Tonight, the House of Representatives will attempt to derail »

A day of reckoning for “disparate impact” housing discrimination cases

Featured image Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a Texas case in which the issue is whether claims of “disparate impact discrimination” can be brought under the Fair Housing Act. The case is Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. “Disparate impact discrimination” occurs when a policy disproportionately excludes or injures a particular group and the policy is not shown to be »

Obama’s impending regulatory assault

Featured image President Obama promised that 2014 would be the year of the presidential “phone and pen.” Atypically, Obama delivered to some extent on that promise. For Obama, 2015 will be the year in which he eschews the phone and resorts even more to the pen. His controversial executive orders on amnesty and Cuba are just the tip of that iceberg. For years, leftist dominated federal agencies have been clamoring for an »

Fighting back against the left’s plans for how we should live

Featured image President Obama has big plans for how we should live. We’ve written about these plans — which fall under the label “regionalism” — here, here, and elsewhere. In essence, Obama seeks to fulfill the left’s longtime dream of redistributing money from the suburbs to the cities and inner-ring suburbs, and imposing racial and income balance in every neighborhood. Obama has put these plans on hold until after the November election, »