Supreme Court ruling favors Miami’s case

Written by Miami Today on May 1, 2017

In a 5-3 decision, the US Supreme Court ruled today that cities have standing under the Fair Housing Act to sue banks that employ discriminatory lending practices.

This ruling opens the door for the City of Miami to proceed with its lawsuit, which alleges that Bank of America and Wells Fargo discriminated against African-American and Hispanic homeowners in their mortgage terms and fees, leading to excessive foreclosures and loss of property tax revenue collected by the city, according to City Commissioner Francis Suarez, who spearheaded the decision to sue the banks.

“We are extremely pleased that the Supreme Court ruled in our favor,” Mr. Suarez said. Such “lending practices unfairly targeted minority homeowners, and they ended up creating a budgetary crisis for Miami, making it impossible to address our residents’ needs. Our goal in filing this lawsuit was to help redress the damage that was done to the City of Miami and our residents, and today the Supreme Court’s decision gets us one step closer to our goal.”