Craigslist Fair Housing Act Suit Dismissed

tigersaw writes, "A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed the suit against Craigslist brought by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which accused the site of violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by not actively filtering out housing advertisements that include discriminatory language. Craigslist cited their community-based flagging system as an already effective means of limiting such posts. However, the court held that the site was nonetheless protected by the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), which shields Web forums from liability for ads and opinions posted by their users."

Comments

Re:Freedom of association is just not that popular

[gaspar ilom]

Many utilities are subsidized by either local municipalities, states, or the federal government. (And obviously, "public roadways" are like this.)

However, even if these were "all paid-for by the customers" -- there is still the economy-of-scale that benefits everyone by making the services cheaper.

And, if every White landlord in some city decides they won't rent to non-whites, how are people of color to peacefully respond? Boycotting the utilities might make sense.

It would be indirect -- but it could be used to put pressure on Landlords for the lower cost service they get. This is like what happened w/ the boycotting of Bus services down south 40 years ago -- it wasn't just about the busses, themselves. Those boycotts affected the whole economy.

Of course, that's not really feasible -- because those utilities are essential life services -- and their almost always *monopolies* -- often regulated by *governament.* (so, should they lobby the "government" to enable anti-discrimination laws? ...and History repeats itself.)

The current anti-discrimination laws seem much simpler and cleaner to me.