¹ Martin Luther King, Jr., Facing the Challenge of a New Age, address delivered at the First Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University (December 3, 1956), https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/facing-challenge-new-age-address-delivered-first-annual-institute-nonviolence (“But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community.”).

² See generally Angela C. Carmella, Christianity and Property Law, in Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law 448 (Rafael Domingo and John Witte Jr. eds., 2024).

³ For a general analysis of biblical, patristic, and Thomistic approaches, see David W. Opderbeck, Christian Thought and Property Law, in Christianity and Private Law 54 (Robert F. Cochran Jr. and Michael P. Moreland eds., 2021). For a discussion of the Jewish legal requirement in Leviticus 23:22 that owners leave the edges of their fields unharvested so that widows, orphans, and foreigners could gather food for themselves, see Joseph William Singer, The Edges of the Field: Lessons on the Obligation of Ownership 38–62 (2000). For a description of Augustine’s thinking, see William S. Brewbaker III, Augustinian Property, in Christianity and Private Law, supra, at 77.

⁴ Francis, Laudato Si’ [Encyclical on Care for Our Common Home] § 93 (2015), https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html (quoting John Paul II, Laborem Exercens [Encyclical on Human Work] § 19 (1981), https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091981_laborem-exercens.html). These themes began to be articulated in the late nineteenth century and continued into the early twentieth century. See Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum [Encyclical on Capital and Labor] (1891), https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html; Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno [Encyclical on Reconstruction of the Social Order] (1931), https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html. The documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) continued to develop these themes in connection with the common good and human rights. See David Hollenbach, Commentary on Gaudium et spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World), in Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations 275, 289–90 (2nd ed., Kenneth R. Himes ed., 2018). Popes John Paul II and Francis have been prolific contributors to this sustained reflection. See infra notes 17–21 and accompanying text. For a recent (and urgent) addendum to Laudato Si’, see Francis, Laudate Deum [Apostolic Exhortation on the Climate Crisis] (2023), https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html.

⁵ John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis [Encyclical on the Social Concern of the Church] § 42 (1987), https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30121987_sollicitudo-rei-socialis.html. The mortgage metaphor is quite helpful because while a mortgage does not interfere with ownership, it encumbers that ownership with “the senior creditor claim on the ownership of goods necessary to ensure that all members of a society possess the material circumstances necessary to pursue their own authentic development.” Edward D. Kleinbard, The Social Mortgage on Business, in Business Ethics and Catholic Thought 181, 184 (Daniel K. Finn ed. 2021). See also Edward O’Boyle, Blessed John Paul II on Social Mortgage: Origins, Questions, and Norms, 17 Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 7 (2014).

⁶ See, e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/letter-from-birmingham-jail.

⁷ Many scholars have described these norms. See, e.g., Singer, supra note 3; Eduardo Peñalver, The Illusory Right to Abandon, 109 Michigan Law Review 191 (2010); Gregory S. Alexander, Property and Human Flourishing (2018); Gregory S. Alexander, The Social-Obligation Norm in American Property Law, 94 Cornell Law Review 745 (2009).

⁸ See generally Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (2017). For a powerful critique of race and the U.S. economy, see Jeff Fuhrer, The Myth That Made Us: How False Beliefs about Racism and Meritocracy Broke Our Economy (and How to Fix It) (2023).

⁹ Matthew Desmond, Poverty, By America 111 (2023).

¹⁰ The story told in this article tracks the particular laws and policies targeted primarily at African Americans. It is not intended to diminish the historic and contemporary burdens on other communities of color, especially Indigenous peoples.

¹¹ Alexander, Social-Obligation Norm, supra note 7, at 748.

¹² The Catholic intellectual tradition holds no monopoly on these principles. Given the long history of concern over sharing material welfare, many Christian communities have engaged in related ethical and theological reflection. See, e.g., William Schweiker & Charles Mathewes, eds., Having: Property and Possession in Religious and Social Life (2004).

¹³ I use the term law in its broadest sense: in the United States, property and land use laws include not just the common law and equity, but also private, customary, statutory, regulatory, and constitutional law, in all their interpretations, iterations, and evolutions. Joseph William Singer, Democratic Estates: Property Law in a Free and Democratic Society, 94 Cornell Law Review 1009 (2009).

¹⁴ Lucia A. Silecchia, “Social Love” as a Vision for Environmental Law: Laudato Si’ and the Rule of Law, 10 Liberty Law Review 371, 376 (2016).

¹⁵ Angela C. Carmella, A Catholic View of Law and Justice, in Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought 255, 266 (Michael W. McConnell, Robert F. Cochran, Jr., & Angela C. Carmella eds., 2001).

¹⁶ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, pt. II-II, q. 66, art. 2 (Fathers of the English Dominican Province trans., 1947), http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.i.html. For an explication of these themes, see Anthony M. Annett, Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy (2022).

¹⁷ Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 4, § 93, (quoting John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, supra note 4, § 19. The right to private property “which is fundamental for the autonomy and development of the person, has always been defended by the Church up to our own day. At the same time, the Church teaches that the possession of material goods is not an absolute right, and that its limits are inscribed in its very nature as a human right.” John Paul II, Centesimus Annus [Encyclical on the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum] § 30 (1991), https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html; see also Francis, Fratelli Tutti [Encyclical on Fraternity and Social Friendship] §§ 118, 120 (2020), https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html (“For my part, I would observe that ‘the Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property.’ … The right to private property can only be considered a secondary natural right, derived from the principle of the universal destination of created goods. This has concrete consequences that ought to be reflected in the workings of society.”).

¹⁸ Kleinbard, supra note 5, at 182.

¹⁹ John Finnis, Aquinas as Primary Source of Catholic Social Teaching, in Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays 14, 24–25 (Gerard V. Bradley & E. Christian Brugger eds., 2019). See also Samuel Gregg, The Financial Sector in Catholic Social Teaching, Catholic Social Thought (last visited July 15, 2023), https://catholicsocialthought.org.uk/course_unit/the-financial-sector-in-catholic-social-teaching (“Private property is not an end in itself. It is for something. Christianity therefore not only insists that we should use our ‘surplus goods’ (what each person has left over once they have used their property to meet their own and their families’ needs) to assist others, but that we should be ready to use our essential wealth to serve others. A number of qualifications need to be made here. Firstly, the precise distinction between essential and surplus property is not exactly the same for every person. … But it does mean that any Christian should be deploying this segment of his wealth to aid the flourishing of the less fortunate. What matters is that we put our wealth to work so that the conditions that promote the flourishing of every person and each community are enhanced.”).

²⁰ Aquinas, supra note 16, at II-II, q. 66, art. 7 (“[E]ach one is entrusted with the stewardship of his own things, so that out of them he may come to the aid of those who are in need. Nevertheless, if the need be so manifest and urgent, that it is evident that the present need must be remedied by whatever means at hand (for instance, when a person is in some imminent danger, and there is no other possible remedy) then it is lawful for a man to succor his own need by means of another’s property, by taking it either openly or secretly: nor is this properly speaking theft or robbery.”). See also, Shaun P. Martin, Radical Necessity Defense, 73 University of Cincinnati Law Review 1527, 1549 (2005).

²¹ Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 4.

²² Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 198 (1986).

²³ Id. at 95, 138.

²⁴ The King Center’s Definition of Nonviolence, The King Center, https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy (last visited July 18, 2023) (emphasis added).

²⁵ Alexandra Tanzi & Mike Dorning, Top 1% of U.S. Earners Now Hold More Wealth than All of the Middle Class, Bloomberg (Oct. 8, 2021), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-08/top-1-earners-hold-more-wealth-than-the-u-s-middle-class; Willy Staley, How Many Billionaires Are There, Anyway? New York Times (June 15, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/magazine/billionaires.html.

²⁶ Eric T. Freyfogle, Laudato Si’ and Private Property, in Laudato Si’ and the Environment: Pope Francis’ Green Encyclical 21, 24–25, 35 (Robert McKim ed., 2020).

²⁷ See generally Rothstein, supra note 8.

²⁸ See generally Carmella, supra note 2, and Opderbeck, supra note 3. Of course, early Christians shared property in common, a practice which continues in some communities like the Amish; likewise, other communities, like America’s Indigenous population, rejected the privatization of resources. These methods of property stewardship provide an important critique of the position discussed here, which unfortunately is outside of the scope of this article.

²⁹ Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 10 (1948).

³⁰ Kleinbard’s analysis, supra note 5, emphasizes taxation and spending policies as the primary mechanisms for payment of the social mortgage debt.

³¹ Eduardo Peñalver, Land Virtues, 94 Cornell Law Review 821, 880–82 (2009).

³² A fourth category, which I omit from this article due to space constraints, involves the government’s stewardship of its lands and buildings. For public lands, see generally, John D. Leshy, Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands (2021) (describing governmental priorities of recreation, inspiration, wildlife protection, environmental restoration, scientific study, and preserving cultural heritage, with increasing emphasis over time on protection rather than exploitation and greater cooperation with Native Americans).

³³ Singer, supra note 3; see also, Singer, Democratic Estates, supra note 13.

³⁴ Singer, supra note 3, at 21–22, 26.

³⁵ See, e.g., Midkiff v. Hawaii Housing Authority, 467 U.S. 229 (1984) (land reform necessary to break up property concentration to create healthy economic and political systems); accord, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Distribuzione Terra [Towards a Better Distribution of Land: The Challenge of Agrarian Reform] § 27 (1998) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_12011998_distribuzione-terra_en.html (arguing that the prevalence of concentrated landholdings is a scandal, as it “deprives a large part of humanity of the benefits of the fruits of the earth”).

³⁶ Gary D. Libecap, Defining Ideas: The Consequences of Land Ownership, Hoover Institution at Stanford University (Aug. 29, 2018), https://www.hoover.org/research/consequences-land-ownership; Ezra Rosser, Destabilizing Property, 48 Connecticut Law Review 397, 450–51 (2015) (arguing that the government “could have sold off the frontier to the highest bidder, but instead it helped create a robust and deep system of family farming,” which “served as a hedge against property becoming overly concentrated in the hands of industrial employers and land barons”).

³⁷ According to publicly available data, the homeownership rate in 2022 was around 66 percent, while more than 43.9 million households rented (around 34 percent), mostly from private landlords. Joint Cener for Housing Studies of Harvard University, The State of the Nation’s Housing 2023, at 27, 32 (2023); Drew DeSilver, As National Eviction Ban Expires, A Look at Who Rents and Who Owns in the U.S., Pew Research Center (August 2, 2021), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/02/as-national-eviction-ban-expires-a-look-at-who-rents-and-who-owns-in-the-u-s/. According to 2018 census data, “fewer than one-fifth of rental properties are owned by for-profit businesses of any kind. Most rental properties—about seven-in-ten—are owned by individuals, who typically own just one or two properties.” DeSilver, supra. But see Terri Montague, The Elusive Quest for a Legal Right to Housing in the U.S.,” Canopy Forum, May 9, 2024, https://canopyforum.org/2024/05/09/the-elusive-quest-for-a-legal-right-to-housing-in-the-u-s/ (discussing increasing corporate acquisition).

³⁸ See generally Alex Nguyen & Amy Pollard, Berkshire’s Trident Mortgage to Pay Over $20 Million on Redlining Claims, Bloomberg (July 27, 2022); Rashmi Dyal-Chand & James V. Rowan, Developing Capabilities, Not Entrepreneurs: A New Theory for Community Economic Development, 42 Hofstra Law Review 839 (2014); Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Collaborative Capitalism in American Cities: Reforming Urban Market Regulations (2018) (discussing community banks and their holistic services to communities in lending and investing, creating neighborhood stability and thriving employees).

³⁹ Physical infrastructure, also known as hard or gray (for pipes) infrastructure, includes everything needed to establish systems to build and manage transportation, water delivery, drainage, solid waste and sewerage, telecommunications, and the power grid. The definition now includes green infrastructure, which copies and utilizes natural materials. See, e.g., Green and Grey Infrastructure Research, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/water-research/green-and-gray-infrastructure-research#:~:text=Gray%20infrastructure%20is%20traditional%20stormwater,%2C%20pipes%2C%20and%20retention%20basins (last visited August 5, 2023).

⁴⁰ Environmental infrastructure includes the physical elements needed to establish a safe water supply, waste disposal, recycling, pollution control, climate adaptation and resiliency, and the generation of renewable energy. It also includes natural resources management, including parks and recreation, open spaces and conserved lands, agricultural lands, brown and abandoned lands, trees, forests, rivers and waterways, wetlands, and coastal areas. See, e.g., Jerry Nathanson, Environmental Infrastructure, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/technology/environmental-infrastructure (last visited July 18, 2023). There is some overlap with physical infrastructure (for instance, the pipes and aqueducts for water supply), but environmental infrastructure goes beyond the gray infrastructure to ensure human health and environmental protection.

⁴¹ Cultural infrastructure includes libraries, museums, performing arts centers, galleries, theaters and movie houses, and civic and cultural buildings and spaces, as well as structures with historic, architectural, cultural significance, including houses of worship and religio-cultural sites. See, e.g., AEA Consulting Releases the 2022 Cultural Infrastructure Index, Art Dependence Magazine (July 27, 2023), https://www.artdependence.com/articles/aea-consulting-releases-the-2022-cultural-infrastructure-index/.

⁴² See generally Gregory S. Alexander, works cited supra note 7.

⁴³ In addition to taking an owner’s property for some specific public use, the court has allowed local and state governments to act as parcel assemblers, taking and then transferring properties to private developers for large-scale economic redevelopment. Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005).

⁴⁴ Conditions are often imposed to require the developer to mitigate negative impacts of their projects. Sometimes that involves the payment of related and proportional impact fees or property rights for public use. See Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, 144 S. Ct. 893 (2024); Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, 570 U.S. 595 (2013); Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, 483 U.S. 825 (1987); Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374 (1994).

⁴⁵ Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623 (1887).

⁴⁶ Nuisances may include noxious fumes, noise, dust, odors, vibration, flooding, excessive light, various types of air and water pollution, hazardous waste migrating to nearby parcels, and hazardous substances such as lead paint.

⁴⁷ Sometimes a court, using its equitable powers, recognizes or implies a property right—often an easement—in a person who has no formal title. See Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Sharing the Cathedral, 46 Connecticut Law Review 647, 697–98 (2013).

⁴⁸ The ancient concept of necessity, discussed supra note 20, is used in U.S. law:

Martin, supra note 20, at 1549.

⁴⁹ 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000a–2000a-6.

⁵⁰ 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601–19

⁵¹ 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604–06.

⁵² Marc R. Poirier, Environmental Justice and the Beach Access Movements of the 1970 in Connecticut and New Jersey: Stories of Property and Civil Rights, 28 Connecticut Law Review 719 (1996) (describing how beach access was framed entirely as a property and environmental matter in New Jersey, but additionally as a civil rights issue of race and class and subset of exclusionary zoning in Connecticut).

⁵³ State v. Shack, 277 A.2d 369 (N.J. 1971).

⁵⁴ DeNeen L. Brown, 40 Acres and a Mule: How the First Reparations for Slavery Ended in Betrayal, Washington Post (April 15, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/04/15/40-acres-mule-slavery-reparations/.

⁵⁵ Cristin Jordan, A Framework for Reparations: Scholars Worked Years to Develop Detailed, “Feasible” Plan, ABA Journal (July 5, 2023), https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/a-framework-for-reparations.

⁵⁶ Rothstein, supra note 8, at 45.

⁵⁷ See infra notes 93–95 and accompanying text for a discussion of the loss of heirs’ property.

⁵⁸ See, e.g., Alicia H. Munnell, et al., Mortgage Lending in Boston: Interpreting HMDA Data, 86 American Economic Review 25 (1996).

⁵⁹ Rothstein, supra note 8, at 63–72.

⁶⁰ Rick Jacobus & David M. Abromowitz, A Path to Homeownership: Building a More Sustainable Strategy for Expanding Homeownership, 19 Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development 313 (2010).

⁶¹ Most urban areas have grown more, not less, segregated over time. “More than 80% of large metropolitan areas in the United States were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990.” See Alana Semuels, The U.S. Is Increasingly Diverse, So Why Is Segregation Getting Worse?, Time (June 21, 2021), https://time.com/6074243/segregation-america-increasing/; see also Ailsa Chang, et al., Black Americans and the Racist Architecture of Homeownership, National Public Radio (May 8, 2021), https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2021/05/08/991535564/black-americans-and-the-racist-architecture-of-homeownership.

⁶² Brad Plumer & Nadja Popovich, How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering, New York Times (August 24, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/24/climate/racism-redlining-cities-global-warming.html.

⁶³ Rothstein, supra note 8, at 179.

⁶⁴ Neil Bhutta, et al., Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (September 28, 2020), https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-finances-20200928.html.

⁶⁵ Id.

⁶⁶ Vanessa Romo, Black Couple Settles Lawsuit Claiming Their Home Appraisal Was Lowballed Due to Bias, National Public Radio (Mar. 9, 2023), https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1162103286/home-appraisal-racial-bias-black-homeownerslawsuit#:~:text=Disparities%20in%20home%20appraisals%20are,whites%20to%20get%20low%20appraisals. See also, Jonathan Rothwell & Andre M. Perry, Biased Appraisals and the Devaluation of Housing in Black Neighborhoods, Brookings Institute (Nov. 17, 2021), https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biased-appraisals-and-the-devaluation-of-housing-in-black-neighborhoods/.

⁶⁷ David Super, The Rise and Fall of the Implied Warranty of Habitability, 99 California Law Review 389 (2011). As of 2022, three states and thirteen cities have established a right to counsel for tenants faced with evictions. The evidence is clear that with such laws, eviction filing rates are down, and significant percentages of tenants are avoiding eviction. Paula A. Franzese & Cecil J. Thomas, Disrupting Dispossession: How the Right to Counsel in Landlord-Tenant Proceeding Is Reshaping Outcomes, 52 Seton Hall Law Review 1255, 1302–10 (2022). Note that landlords are suing to stop programs that provide tenants with free legal counsel. Mark Koosau, Landlord Group Sues to Stop Jersey City’s New Tenant Right-to-Counsel Program, Jersey Journal (July 27, 2023), https://www.nj.com/hudson/2023/07/landlord-group-sues-to-stop-jersey-citys-new-tenant-right-to-counsel-program.html.

⁶⁸ Michelle D. Layser, et al., Mitigating Housing Instability During a Pandemic, 99 Oregon Law Review 445 (2021).

⁶⁹ See Montague, supra note 37.

⁷⁰ Rothstein, supra note 8, at 109–13; see generally Linda E. Fisher and Judith Fox, The Foreclosure Echo: How the Hardest Hit Have Been Left Out of the Economic Recovery (2019); see also Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership (2019).

⁷¹ Courtney Connley, Why the Homeownership Gap Between White and Black Americans Is Larger Today than It Was over 50 Years Ago, CNBC (August 21, 2020), https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/21/why-the-homeownership-gap-between-white-and-black-americans-is-larger-today-than-it-was-over-50-years-ago.html. See also, Just Economy Conference, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (discussing guidance from CFPB and HUD), https://web.cvent.com/event/addc08ef-8241-4704-9b34-9d0ffe9ce60e/websitePage:645d57e4-75eb-4769-b2c0-f201a0bfc6ce (last visited July 19, 2023).

⁷² Sarah Mancini and Margot Saunders, Land Installment Contracts: The Newest Wave of Predatory Home Lending Threatening Communities of Color, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (April 13, 2017), https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/communities-and-banking/2017/spring/land-installment-contracts-newest-wave-of-predatory-home-lending-threatening-communities-of-color.aspx.

⁷³ The U.S. Supreme Court struck down explicitly racially segregated zones in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917), but racially restrictive housing covenants emerged to promote the segregation goal. Less than a decade later, the Court held zoning to be constitutional in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 (1926). But the district court had noted that the zoning code “furthered class tendencies,” finding that “the result to be accomplished is to classify the population and segregate them according to their income or situation in life.” Ambler Realty Co. v. Village of Euclid, 297 F. 307, 316 (N.D. Ohio 1924).

⁷⁴ One hundred and thirty-five thousand people were displaced from 230 neighborhoods between 2000 and 2013. Alyssa Wiltse-Ahmad, Study: Gentrification and Cultural Displacement Most Intense in America’s Largest Cities, and Absent from Many Others, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (March 18, 2019), https://ncrc.org/study-gentrification-and-cultural-displacement-most-intense-in-americas-largest-cities-and-absent-from-many-others/. See also Norrinda Brown Hayat, Urban Decolonization, 24 Michigan Journal of Race and Law 75 (2018) (criticizing programs emphasizing integration and mobility as having failed low-income Blacks).

⁷⁵ Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel, 336 A.2d 713 (N.J. 1975). See also Editorial, Towns That Defy Fair-Housing Law, New York Times (July 26, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/opinion/towns-that-defy-fair-housing-law.html; Paula A. Franzese, An Inflection Point for Affordable Housing: The Promise of Inclusionary Mixed-Use Redevelopment, 52 UIC John Marshall Law Review 581 (2019).

⁷⁶ In re Adoption of N.J.A.C. 5:96 & 5:97 ex rel. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 110 A.3d 31 (N.J. 2015).

⁷⁷ Kayla Canne, “We Don’t Take That:” Why Illegal Discrimination Toward Section 8 Tenants Goes Unchecked in NJ, Asbury Park Press (October 25, 2021), https://www.app.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/10/26/section-8-nj-housing-choice-voucher-discrimination-law-new-jersey/5602044001/.

⁷⁸ The Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Abuse (Briefing Report), U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Jan. 27, 2014), https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/docs/FINAL_FY14_Eminent-Domain-Report.pdf; see also Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469, 511 (2005) (Thomas, J., dissenting).

⁷⁹ Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954).

⁸⁰ Residents had relied on the redevelopment plan’s requirement for new construction of low- and moderate-income housing—one-third of units in one area and one-quarter of units throughout the remaining acreage. While some moderately priced housing was built, by 1960 these affordability requirements had been removed from the redevelopment plan. By 1970, most residents had been “permanently displaced.” Amy Lavine, Urban Renewal and the Story of Berman v. Parker, 42 Urban Lawyer 423, 467 (2010).

⁸¹ Rothstein, supra note 8, at 24, 106, 107.

⁸² Gabrielle Hays, Decades after a Missouri Town Seized a Black Doctor’s Home, His Relatives Sought to Reclaim His Land—and His Story, PBS Newshour (October 14, 2021), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/decades-after-a-missouri-town-seized-a-black-doctors-home-his-relatives-sought-to-reclaim-his-land-and-his-story. Even today, some local governments use takings under the pretext of creating “open space,” but the goal is to prevent the building of affordable housing, senior housing, and housing for families with children, which is often code for racial minorities or lower-income populations. David L. Schwed, Pretextual Takings and Exclusionary Zoning: Different Means to the Same Parochial End, 2 Arizona Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 53 (2011).

⁸³ Ilya Somin, The American Experience with Eminent Domain—and Its Possible Lessons for Others, Washington Post (May 26, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/05/26/the-american-experience-with-eminent-domain-and-its-possible-lessons-for-others/; Justin B. Kamen, A Standardless Standard: How A Misapplication of Kelo Enabled Columbia University to Benefit from Eminent Domain Abuse, 77 Brooklyn Law Review 1217 (2012).

⁸⁴ Thomas J. Miceli and Katherine A. Pancak, Using Eminent Domain to Write-Down Underwater Mortgages: An Economic Analysis, 24 Journal of Housing Research 221 (2015).

⁸⁵ Misbah Husain & Melissa K. Scanlan, Disadvantaged Communities, Water Justice & The Promise of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 52 Seton Hall Law Review 1513 (2022); Nick Tabor, The Homes of Lowndes County, Ala., Are Waiting, New York Times (June 19, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/opinion/environmental-racism-justice.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare; Dennis Pillion, Alabama Black Belt Becomes Environmental Test Case, Al.com (June 7, 2023), https://www.al.com/news/2023/06/alabama-black-belt-becomes-environmental-justice-test-case-is-sanitation-a-civil-right.html. See also Vulnerable Communities Initiative, https://www.vulnerablecommunities.org (last visited July 24, 2023).

⁸⁶ Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Madeleine Ngo, Racial Equity in Infrastructure, a U.S. Goal, Is Left to the States, New York Times (Nov. 16, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/politics/racial-equity-states-government.html?login=email&auth=login-email.

⁸⁷ Id.

⁸⁸ Environmental Protection Agency, Population Surrounding 1,877 Superfund Sites (2020), https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/webpopulationrsuperfundsites9.28.15.pdf.

⁸⁹ See generally Francis, Laudato Si’, supra note 4.

⁹⁰ Rothstein, supra note 8, at 177–83. New Report Analyzes 50 Years of the Fair Housing Act and Calls for Stronger Enforcement of Fair housing Laws, National Fair Housing Alliance (April 30, 2018), https://nationalfairhousing.org/new-report-analyzes-50-years-of-the-fair-housing-act-and-calls-for-stronger-enforcement-of-fair-housing-laws/#:~:text=The%20Fair%20Housing%20Act%20has,Development%20(HUD)%20and%20Department%20of.

⁹¹ Kriston Capps, Trump Scrapped Two Fair Housing Rules; Biden Is Bringing Them Back, Bloomberg (April 13, 2021), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-13/biden-to-restore-two-obama-era-fair-housing-rules.

⁹² For instance, in 2020, New Jersey became the first state in the nation to enact an Environmental Justice Law, which requires permitting agencies to evaluate the public health and environmental impacts of proposed facilities on nearby poor and/or minority neighborhoods. N.J.S.A. §§ 13:1D-157 to 13:1D-161; see also Jordan, supra note 55.

⁹³ See generally Thomas W. Mitchell, Restoring Hope for Heirs Property Owners: The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, 40 State and Local Law News 6 (2016); Thomas Mitchell, Reforming Property Law to Address Devastating Land Loss, 66 Alabama Law Review 1 (2014); Thomas Mitchell, From Reconstruction to Deconstruction: Undermining Black Ownership, Political Independence, and Community Through Partition Sales of Tenancies in Common, 95 Northwestern University Law Review 505 (2001). See also Greg Barlow, Defying Great Odds—Mitigating Property Loss Through Historic Partition Law Reform in the U.S., Law and Society Association, https://lawandsociety.site-ym.com/news/523353/Defying-Great-Odds--Mitigating-Property-Loss-Through-Historic-Partition-Law-Reform-in-the-U.S.html (last visited August 5, 2023).

⁹⁴ Sean Doolittle, The Truths of Black Land Loss, Boston College Law Magazine (April 12, 2023), https://lawmagazine.bc.edu/2023/04/the-truths-of-black-land-loss/.

⁹⁵ The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act allows the co-owner not seeking partition to buy the partitioning co-tenant for a court-determined amount, with time to arrange for financing; courts can make in kind partitions to protect value and homesteads; and courts can promote a bidding process that generates a fair market value. Jesse Dukeminier, et al., Property 423–24 (10th ed. 2022).

⁹⁶ Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mt. Laurel, 336 A.2d 713 (N.J. 1975). Zoning laws must promote public health, safety, morals, or the general welfare. The state delegates the zoning power to towns, and local zoning inevitably has impacts outside town borders, particularly exclusionary impacts. Therefore, local zoning codes must recognize and serve the welfare of the state’s citizens beyond the town’s borders.

⁹⁷ NAACP, supra note 96, at 722.

⁹⁸ Yonah Freemark, et al., Bringing Zoning into Focus, Urban Institute (June 6, 2023), https://www.urban.org/research/publication/bringing-zoning-focus. For instance, in Connecticut, “only 2% of [the state’s] land is zoned to allow by-right construction of multifamily buildings with 3 or more units per parcel, while 91% of its land allows only the construction of single family housing by right.” Id.

⁹⁹ Margaret Barthel and Jennifer Ludden, The U.S. Needs More Affordable Housing—Where to Put It Is a Bigger Battle, National Public Radio (February 11, 2023), https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-02-11/the-u-s-needs-more-affordable-housing-where-to-put-it-is-a-bigger-battle.

¹⁰⁰ Shelby D. Green, Adaptive Rezoning for Social Equity, Affordability and Resilience, 52 Seton Hall Law Review 1325, 1343–50 (2022). See also, Shelby D. Green, Zoning Neighborhoods for Resilience: Drivers, Tools, and Inputs, 28 Fordham Environmental Law Review 41 (2016); Shelby D. Green, Equitable, Affordable, and Climate Cognizant Housing Construction, 75 Arkansas Law Review 363 (2022); Shelby D. Green, The Intentional Community: Toward Inclusion and Climate Cognizance, 62 Washburn Law Journal 243 (2022–2023).

¹⁰¹ Soumya Karlamangla, The Debate Around Bruce’s Beach, New York Times (March 9, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/us/california-bruces-beach.html; Los Angeles County Government, Chief Executive’s Office, Bruce’s Beach, https://ceo.lacounty.gov/ardi/bruces-beach/ (video) (last visited August 5, 2023); Clyde McGrady, Bruce’s Beach Was Hailed as a Reparations Model. Then the Family Sold It, New York Times (February 20, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/us/bruces-beach-sold-reparations.html#:~:text=Then%2C%20in%20January%2C%20the%20heirs,at%20universities%20and%20local%20governments.

¹⁰² The Lawyer Who Saved a Black Cultural Treasure: Activist George C. Fatheree III, Loyola Law School, https://www.lls.edu/hybridgeorgefatheree-v2/ (last visited August 5, 2023).

¹⁰³ Daniel Burke, Pope: Poor are Sacrificed on the “Altar of Money,” CNN (July 11, 2015), https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/10/living/pope-notes-prison/index.html.

¹⁰⁴ King, supra note 22, at 197.