Facts
- Little Hunting Park, Inc. (LHP) was a Virginia nonstock corporation operating neighborhood recreational facilities; a membership share entitled a shareholder’s family to use the facilities.
- Under LHP bylaws, when a shareholder rented a house, the shareholder could assign the membership share to the tenant subject to board approval.
- Paul Sullivan, a white homeowner and LHP shareholder, leased a house to Freeman, a Black tenant, and attempted to assign his membership share to Freeman as part of the lease.
- LHP’s board refused to approve the assignment because Freeman was Black.
- After Sullivan protested the refusal, LHP expelled Sullivan from the corporation.
- Sullivan and Freeman sued for injunctive relief and damages; by the time of Supreme Court review, Freeman had moved away and sought only damages.
Issues
- Whether Virginia’s transcript-notice rule was an adequate and independent state ground that barred federal review.
- Whether LHP’s racially motivated refusal to approve assignment of a membership share connected to a residential lease violated 42 U.S.C. § 1982, including when the interference came from a third party rather than the lessor.
- Whether Sullivan had standing under § 1982 to sue based on discrimination against his Black tenant and retaliation against Sullivan for protesting it.
- Whether LHP could be treated as a private social club outside federal civil-rights protections in this context.
Decision
- The Supreme Court reversed and remanded.
- The Court held the state procedural rule was discretionary and not consistently applied as a jurisdictional bar; it did not preclude federal review.
- The Court held LHP was not a private social club for these purposes.
- The Court held the membership share was an incident of the lease and that refusing assignment because of race violated § 1982, including where the discrimination was third-party interference with leasing rights.
- The Court held Sullivan had standing as an effective adversary to challenge the discrimination, especially in light of his expulsion for asserting Freeman’s rights.
Legal Principles
- 42 U.S.C. § 1982 prohibits private racial discrimination that impairs the rights to lease and to enjoy property-related benefits; protection extends to interference by third parties, not only to actions of sellers or lessors.
- Property-related rights covered by § 1982 may include appurtenant benefits that are integral to a leasehold arrangement.
- A plaintiff may have standing to enforce § 1982 when personally injured by retaliation for opposing discrimination and when positioned to vindicate the discriminated-against party’s property rights.
- A state procedural ground bars federal review only if it is adequate and independent; discretionary or irregular application will not suffice.
Conclusion
The Court held that § 1982 reaches private, racially discriminatory obstruction of lease-related property benefits and permitted a white lessor expelled for opposing discrimination to pursue relief, while also rejecting an inconsistently applied state procedural rule as a bar to federal review.