Fair housing organizations filed a lawsuit Wednesday over a federal rule change that they say would reverse decades of lending protections and open the door to discrimination against Black people, Latinos and other minorities.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., takes aim at a change made earlier this year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which bars lenders from discriminating against credit applicants. Among the changes being challenged is that lenders will no longer have to consider “disparate impact” — policies that appear neutral but tend to cause disproportionate harm to certain groups.
