Seattle Sued Over Law Banning Landlords From Conducting Criminal Background Checks

by | May 6, 2018

Seattle Sued Over Law Banning Landlords From Conducting Criminal Background Checks

by | May 6, 2018

In August 2017, Seattle made it illegal for landlords to decline potential tenants because of their criminal history, or even to perform a criminal background check on people looking to rent their property. Now a collection of landlords is suing, claiming the so-called Fair Chance Housing Ordinance is unconstitutional.

On Tuesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest law firm, filed suit on behalf of several small-time landlords who are concerned about the financial and personal safety risks of being unable to screen tenants for past wrongdoing.

The PLF’s complaint claims that the Seattle law violates landlords’ due process rights under the 14th Amendment by imposing an “unreasonable, overbroad, and unduly burdensome” regulation. The complaint also says the law runs afoul of the First Amendment by denying landlords access to publicly available records.

“The landlords we are representing are especially impacted by their inability to look at criminal history,” says Ethan Blevins, an attorney with the PLF. “They have a lot of interest at stake, both personally and professionally.”

Read the rest at REASON.com.

Our Books

thisone

Related Articles

Related

TGIF: Immigration and Liberty

TGIF: Immigration and Liberty

Forbidding freedom of movement to aspiring migrants strikes at the liberty not only of those individuals but also of citizens and legal residents of the United States. That's the way it is with immigration. Indeed, that's the way it is with freedom. The government...

read more
Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Wall Street Journal

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal of March 31, 2023 (page A20, if you must know) featured this headline: “Turkey’s Parliament Ratifies NATO bid.” Here is the first paragraph of this entry: “The Turkish parliament ratified Finland’s entrance into the NATO on Thursday, removing...

read more
Are Police Inherently Less Competent Than Citizens?

Are Police Inherently Less Competent Than Citizens?

Qualified immunity says some people should be held to a lower legal standard than everyone else under Anglo-American common law, mostly government officials in their formal duties—but also stock holders for decisions made by their companies. The idea behind it is that...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This