Seattle Sued Over Law Banning Landlords From Conducting Criminal Background Checks

[rangerrebew]

Seattle Sued Over Law Banning Landlords From Conducting Criminal Background Checks
Violators are required to take classes to reduce racial bias.

Christian Britschgi|May. 2, 2018 2:15 pm
 

Ben Goode/Dreamstime.comBen Goode/Dreamstime.comIn August 2017, Seattle made it illegal for landlords to decline potential tenants because of their criminal history, or even to perform a criminal background check on people looking to rent their property. Now a collection of landlords is suing, claiming the so-called Fair Chance Housing Ordinance is unconstitutional.

On Tuesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest law firm, filed suit on behalf of several small-time landlords who are concerned about the financial and personal safety risks of being unable to screen tenants for past wrongdoing.

http://reason.com/blog/2018/05/02/seattle-sued-over-law-banning-landlords

[rangerrebew]

In other words, banned from the right to protect their property.

[goatprairie]

If a gov. authority can make it illegal for any private business to conduct checks on past history and/or criminal histories of prospective clients, then virtually any business could be liable to those strictures.
Own a lending institution where the integrity of the people handling other people's money is vital? Well then, you have to hire embezzlers, bank robbers, burglars, etc. 
I would think not being allowed to check on the past history of clients whether they're renters or whatever   would be unconstitutional.   But now with our "living, breathing" constitution as defined by liberals anything is possible.

[Frank Cannon]

It's no big thang to let pedophiles and rapists live in your multi units. It's not like it puts the slumlord in jeopardy if things go wrong and people get hurt.

[goatprairie]

It's no big thang to let pedophiles and rapists live in your multi units. It's not like it puts the slumlord in jeopardy if things go wrong and people get hurt.

I would think that would be a very big point in their argument before the SC.  One of the renters commits a crime against another tenant in the same building, and I think the owner/renter would be liable for a huge lawsuit from the tenant who was victimized by the unchecked, criminal tenant. 
It's too bad the liberal idiots on the Seattle city council who banned background checks can't be forced to live in rental units with unchecked, criminal scum.

[dfwgator]

Liberals' ultimate wet dream is to control housing, like in Britain with Council Estates.

[driftdiver]

Thats a losing argument IMO.  Because the otherside will show that blacks and hispanics have a much higher rates of conviction.  Therefore the background check is simply a backdoor attempt to prevent minorities from renting.

The better argument is the property owner needs to make sure the renter doesn't have a history of damaging property or bailing on leases.