Supreme Court revives Reconstruction law against housing discrimination in Jones

The Supreme Court rules in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. on June 17, 1968, that Congress can use the Thirteenth Amendment to ban private racial discrimination in property sales. The case involves a Black man, Joseph Lee Jones, who alleged that a developer refused to sell him a home because of race. The Court reads the Civil Rights Act of 1866 as prohibiting private racial discrimination in property transactions. The decision expands federal power to attack the badges and incidents of slavery. The ruling strengthens fair-housing enforcement beyond state action and ties modern housing discrimination to slavery's legacy.