United States v. Starrett City Associates

Starrett City Associates (Starrett) (defendant) ran a Brooklyn housing development and maintained a target racial mix (about 64% white, 22% black, 8% Hispanic) by keeping a race-sorted applicant pool and assigning each vacancy to an applicant of the same race as the departing tenant. Black applicants sued for racial discrimination, and the parties settled by letting Starrett allocate extra units to minority applicants for five years. The federal government then sued Starrett directly to get a ruling on whether the quota policy itself was lawful. The district court ruled against Starrett, which appealed.