As many in the civil rights and housing advocacy world are happily aware, on March 25, U.S. District Court Judge Helen Berrigan, struck down an ordinance passed by the St. Bernard Parish Council which placed a 12-month moratorium on housing developments of more than five units in St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans. Plaintiffs, including Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, brought action again the Council on the grounds that the moratorium violated an existing consent decree under which the Council had agreed not to engage in further violations of the federal Fair Housing Act following the Council’s adoption of a series of racially discriminatory housing ordinances. The Court found that enactment of the subject ordinance indeed violated the Fair Housing Act under both a discriminatory effect standard and discriminatory intent standard and thus violated the decree. The opinion provides a good primer on applying the Arlington Heights factors to support a finding of intentional discrimination, an unfortunately exceedingly rare occurrence. For example, the opinion noted that a proposal for mixed-income multi-family developments slated for St. Bernard Parish precipitated enactment of the moratorium. The opinion also cites to decisions that found that the terms “crime” and “blight” and concerns about personal safety due to “new” people, references made in a newspaper editorial opposing prior to imposition of the ordinance, are camoflaged racial expressions. The court relied heavily on the testimony of Dr. Calvin Bradford, housing discrimination expert, regarding the disproportionate negative impact the moratorium had on African-Americans because African-Americans in the relevant geographic area are disproportionately lower-income and disproportionately renters, and Kalima Rose, Gulf Coast region affordable housing policy expert with PolicyLink regarding, among other things, the irregularity of enacting a such a moratorium following a development application consistent with the zoning of the subject area. Relman & Dane served as lead counsel for plaintiffs and the full opinion is available on its website.