HUD’s Anti-Discrimination Rule Rewrite Put on Hold by Court (1)

A federal judge put a hold on a new Department of Housing and Urban Development rule that civil rights groups say will make it nearly impossible to bring housing discrimination lawsuits.

Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Oct. 25 put in place a nationwide preliminary injunction and stayed the implementation date for HUD’s new disparate impact standard. The rule, which sets new pleading standards for bringing unintentional housing discrimination claims, was set to take effect Monday.

“In short, these changes constitute a massive overhaul of HUD’s disparate impact standards, to the ...