SCOTUS rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that courts cannot enforce racially restrictive housing covenants

The Supreme Court rules 6-0 in Shelley v. Kraemer that state courts cannot enforce racially restrictive covenants, private agreements barring the sale of property to Black buyers. Chief Justice Fred Vinson writes that using state court power to enforce racial covenants constitutes state action prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling does not make restrictive covenants illegal, only unenforceable in court. Private discrimination in housing continues, and the FHA does not remove race-based underwriting requirements until the 1950s.