The Supreme Court found a housing provision in the California state constitution to be unconstitutional because it involved the state in private racial discrimination.

Justice Byron R. White,White, Byron R.;Reitman v. Mulkey[Reitman v. Mulkey] writing for a 5-4 majority, ruled unconstitutional a provision in the California state constitution that prohibited the state from denying people the absolute discretion to rent, lease, or sell their property to whomever they wished. The 1964 provision, the result of an initiative and referendum, repealed existing laws forbidding private racial discrimination and authorized housing discrimination. White found this would involve the state in private racial discrimination to an unacceptable degree. Because the California state supreme court had earlier found the provision in the state constitution to be in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Court here affirmed a decision from a state court. Justices John M. Harlan II, Hugo L. Black, Tom C. Clark, and Potter Stewart dissented.Discrimination, housing;Reitman v. Mulkey[Reitman v. Mulkey]

Buchanan v. Warley

Corrigan v. Buckley

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States

Housing discrimination

Katzenbach v. McClung

Milliken v. Bradley

Private discrimination

Race and discrimination

Shelley v. Kraemer