Some short excerpts from yesterday's long decision by Seventh Circuit Judge Joshua Kolar, joined by Chief Judge Michael Brennan, in Farhan v. 2715 NMA LLC:
Manal Farhan is a Palestinian American who flew a Palestinian flag in her apartment window. Defendants, the owner and operator of her apartment building, told her to take the flag down pursuant to a policy that the building would stay "neutral" amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict. Farhan refused and defendants terminated her tenancy. She then sued under the Fair Housing Act ("FHA") and several state laws, alleging discrimination based on national origin….
Farhan pursued a novel and unsupported theory of liability under the FHA: that defendants' application of a "neutrality" policy requiring her, a Palestinian American, to remove a Palestinian flag was national origin discrimination prohibited by the FHA. She further asserted, erroneously, that a showing of discriminatory intent was not required at the pleading stage for her intentional discrimination claims, contrary to precedent. While we stress that the allegations in Farhan's complaint could perhaps, presented or defended differently, state a claim for discrimination under the FHA, we affirm the district court's dismissal….
Farhan asserts that other tenants in the building displayed flags and artwork in their windows in the same or a substantially similar manner as the Palestinian flag in Farhan's window. And on information and belief, none of those tenants received notices of termination. She does not, however, claim that other tenants were able to display flags or symbols relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict….
In opposing defendants' motion, Farhan pursued a theory that "requiring tenants to stay neutral in a conflict concerning their home countries is national origin discrimination." She argued that because defendants' "neutrality" policy related only to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and did not ban, for example, Ukrainian or Russian flags in tenant windows, "this would not be happening if she flew a Ukrainian flag in her window instead of a Palestinian one." …
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in the provision and maintenance of housing … based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin…. Farhan argues that her complaint plausibly alleges that defendants, by enforcing their "neutrality" policy, intentionally discriminated against her based on national origin….
But the district court properly observed that her complaint lacks any allegation relating to a discriminatory intent motivating defendants' "neutrality" policy. The complaint does not allege, for example, that the policy only applies to Palestinian flags, as opposed to Israeli flags or other expressive signage. It does not allege that other non-Palestinian tenants were able to fly Israeli or Palestinian flags, or that the policy was only enforced against Palestinian tenants.
