U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Denies Landlords’ Motions in Challenge to Source of Income Discrimination Protections: On April 10, 2026, Judge Michael Nachmanoff of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied the plaintiffs’ motions for preliminary injunction and for class certification in LC v. Jones, a challenge brought under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and other bases to Virginia’s prohibition on source of income (called “source of funds” in the Commonwealth) discrimination. The Court denied the motions through an oral ruling from the bench, without a written opinion, and the plaintiffs subsequently filed a notice of appeal. PRRAC and coalition partners will be monitoring the case as it proceeds to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The law firm of Relman & Colfax PLLC is representing the Commonwealth of Virginia. Rebecca Livengood and Nick Abbott presented the Commonwealth’s arguments at the hearing. The Court’s ruling is a much needed boon in the aftermath of the adverse decision of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court in People v. Commons West, L.L.C., a case raising similar issues.
Kansas Legislature Overrides Gubernatorial Veto to Preempt Local Source of Income Discrimination Protections: Also on April 10, 2026, the Kansas House of Representatives votedby 85-38 margin to join the Kansas Senate, which had voted the previous day, in overriding Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of S.B. 391, which will now preempt local protections against source of income protections in the state. Lawrence, Kansas is the only municipality in the state that had prohibited source of income discrimination. The passage of the preemption bill is a significant setback in the fight for civil rights, housing justice, and access to opportunity in Kansas. Landlords had targeted Lawrence with litigation raising Fourth Amendment claims like those in the Virginia and New York cases referenced above, but that litigation had yet to advance significantly in the courts by the time of the passage of S.B. 391. Although it was ultimately unavailing, PRRAC applauds Governor Kelly’s act of vetoing the bill.
Other news and resources
Reminder – Mixed-Status Proposed Rule Comment Deadline Imminent: On April 21, 2026, the comment period for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposed rule that would prevent mixed-status families from residing in certain federally-subsidized housing with prorated assistance is coming to a close. Take a few minutes to submit a comment in opposition to this harmful proposal!
A Break from the Parade of Horribles – Stations the Acela Should Skip: It is no secret that we at PRRAC love Amtrak, and, while we religiously take the Regional (or the Vermonter) when riding the rails for PRRAC, Yale Law School’s travel policy is different from our own. Thus, our ED is no stranger to the Acela. These – in priority order (from most skippable to arguably worth keeping) – are the stops he wishes that the Acela would skip to make the line a more genuine high-speed offering:
- Stamford, Connecticut: Not a major city in its own right, less than an hour in either direction from the more cosmopolitan climes of New York City and New Haven, and connected to both of those cities by both commuter rail and the Regional, the case for the Acela to stop here is extremely weak.
- BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: If Stamford is too close to both New York City and New Haven, then what is BWI, which is closer than that to both Baltimore’s Penn Station and Union Station in D.C.? Like Stamford, BWI is also connected to its larger neighbors by a variety of public transit options.
- Newark, New Jersey: Newark is undoubtedly a more significant city in its own right than Stamford, but it is really hard to justify a stop a mere 20 minutes or so before (or after) New York City.
- Wilmington, Delaware: Many business travelers need to go back and forth between New York City and Wilmington as a result of the abundance of financial services firms with large offices in Wilmington, which is a consequence of business-friendly aspects of Delaware corporate law. This dynamic clearly sustains a certain volume of station utilization, but is it good? Also, Wilmington is not all that far from Philadelphia, and there are commuter rail connections between the cities.
