Major School Desegregation Lawsuit Filed by Advocates in Massachusetts: On May 20, 2026, plaintiffs’ counsel from Lawyers for Civil Rights, Brown’s Promise, and the law firm of WilmerHale filed M.G.J. v. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Superior Court for Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The complaint alleges that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ school attendance policies and district lines violate state constitutional guarantees of the right to an adequate education and to equal protection. The challenged policies operate against the backdrop of intense residential racial segregation that often aligns with municipal boundaries. PRRAC will be watching this case closely as it progresses in the courts. State courts across the country are becoming an even more central arena in the fight to advance justice through affirmative litigation.
HUD Secretary Releases “State and Local Best Practices for Home Construction, ” Recommending That the Baby Be Thrown Out with the Bathwater: On May 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the release of its “State and Local Best Practices for Home Construction.” The publication reinforces that HUD’s current leadership is fundamentally unserious about tackling the pressing challenge of housing affordability. The Department recommends, among other steps, gutting green building codes that have the potential to play a part in slowing climate change. Although compliance with these codes might add upfront cost to projects, they also may result in utility cost savings over the long haul, and the cost of inaction is great, as well. The document goes further in urging policies with destructive environmental implications, encouraging the repeal of growth boundaries at the exurban fringe and thereby increased sprawl. Although inclusionary zoning is not mentioned by name, it is implicitly included among the “mandates” that HUD would like to see discarded, even though well-designed policies in strong regional housing markets can result in the production of affordable units without dampening overall supply. And, perhaps most confusingly of all (if the culture war weren’t the point), the document’s embrace of “by-right” zoning that is not subject to discretionary approval processes is limited to single-family development and does not include apartments. HUD’s embrace of blunt force deregulation – except with respect to approving apartments in single-family neighborhoods – risks undermining the credibility of other recommendations that the Department makes, such as streamlining approval timelines and reconsidering aesthetically-oriented design criteria, that are uncharacteristically reasonable. Contrary to current HUD leadership’s desire to throw the baby out with the regulatory bathwater, there are smart ways of balancing the need to produce more housing with the need to protect workers, the environment, and civil rights.
Other news and resources
Urban Institute and National CAPACD Highlight Importance of Disaggregated Data: A helpful post from our friends at the Urban Institute and National CAPACD highlights the importance of looking at disaggregated data about race and poverty when designing strategies for increasing affordability in ways that meet the needs of Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.
Buy Your Ticket to Drafting Justice: A Summer Celebration of Movement Wins: We are excited to invite you to PRRAC’s inaugural Drafting Justice, a summer gathering dedicated to celebrating recent wins in civil rights and affordable housing. The evening will be hosted on Thursday, July 16th from 6 PM to 9 PM at the new Atlas Brew Works in the Bridge District of Washington, D.C. You can purchase your tickets here.
RSVP to Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of Hills v. Gautreaux: On June 11, join PRRAC, Mobility Works, and Impact for Equity in Washington, D.C. for “Mobility and Metropolitan Equity: The Legacy of Hills v. Gautreaux at 50,” a symposium examining the enduring impact of Hills v. Gautreaux. Thanks to the generous support of sponsors Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, Klein Hornig LLP, and Joseph Sellers, this symposium is free of charge to ensure accessibility for students and nonprofit professionals. Please RSVP here.
A Break from the Parade of Horribles – Legislative Acronyms Edition: In this Update, we have been checking in periodically on what has become the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 20. Readers may know that, in its original incarnation as Senator Tim Scott’s bill, ROAD stood for “Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream.” That’s not one of our favorite legislative acronyms but what is?
- Audrey: Repeated Objectionable Bothering of Consumers on Phones (ROBOCOP) Act
- Tessa: Bolstering Research and Innovation Now (BRAIN) Act
- Thomas: Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency (ISTEA but pronounced iced tea) Act
