By Don Marsh, Editor
As he promotes “freedom from over-regulation and over-litigation” in his new book, Fed Up, Texas Governor Rick Perry should smile at local government power as exercised just outside his state capital and validated in NAACP v. City of Kyle. Plaintiffs in the case, examined here in June 2009, have failed again in their challenge of Kyle, Texas, zoning standards requiring cement or clay-based cladding for new single-family homes.
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Houston) panel determined a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People- and National Association of Home Builders-anchored coalition lacked legal standing in its claims the city’s ordinances violate the Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA). In a ruling last month, the Appellate Court essentially affirmed a March 2009 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Austin Division) decision denying plaintiffs’ pursuit of relief under the Act. The NAACP/NAHB coalition failed to present the latter court evidence of how the Kyle single-family home building standards discriminated against African-Americans or Hispanics.
Read More