| Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education: On October 19, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the writ of certiorari in Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education, a case involving a large suburban Maryland county’s race-neutral policies for admission to a lottery pool from which students enrolled in its selective middle schools are drawn. Those policies have played an important role in fostering school diversity and ensuring equitable access to educational resources. Disappointingly, the plaintiff has challenged these policies as being unlawfully discriminatory against Asian American students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The sole question on which the Supreme Court granted certiorari is as follows: Whether a plaintiff challenging a facially neutral admissions policy as racially discriminatory must establish that the targeted racial group suffered an aggregate disparate impact relative to its share of the applicant pool. The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit addressed the fact that Asian American students made up a higher share of those admitted to selective middle schools than they did of the applicant pool in their rulings in the defendants’ favor. It is important to note that a lower court could uphold admissions policies like those of Montgomery County even if the Supreme Court rules in the plaintiff’s favor on the narrow issue before it now. Thus, we should not assume the death knell for policies like these if the Court rules in the plaintiff’s favor. At the same time, the presence of a case like this on this Supreme Court’s docket is always cause for concern for the civil rights community because of the risk that the justices will go beyond the question presented, either within their holding, in dicta, or in one or more concurrences that set the stage for future litigation that more directly puts the question of the permissibility of race-neutral policies for advancing school diversity (or civil rights, including fair housing, more broadly) in front of them.
Conferences, Conferences, and More Conferences: The PRRAC team has been out and about, and that is not slowing down over the next three weeks. Executive Director Thomas Silverstein spoke on October 21 on a panel on emerging legal issues for the community development financial institution (CDFI) sector at the conference of the Opportunity Finance Network in New Orleans with his former colleague Adria Bonillas of the the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Damon Smith of the Opportunity Finance Network. Thomas will be speaking at the conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) on November 5 in Boston on a roundtable addressing efforts to build common ground among YIMBYs and tenant organizers alongside PRRAC Board member and director of the Tenant Union Federation Tara Raghuveer, PRRAC Social Science Advisory Board (SSAB) members Ingrid Gould Ellen of the Furman Center at New York University and Michael Lens of UCLA, and longtime friend of PRRAC Solomon Greene of the new (and exciting) Center for Housing Research and Innovative Solutions at the University of Denver. The following week, Thomas and Housing Policy Counsel Audrey Lynn Martin will be speaking at the Housing Justice Network conference in Atlanta on topics including how to address source of income discrimination in connection with mobility counseling programs, how to litigate disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act, and how to align Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) qualified allocation plans (QAPs) with social housing principles. Audrey will then go to Facing Race in Raleigh to spread the gospel about advocacy potential latent in QAPs even further. Lastly, Thomas will pop up in Raleigh the next week to give YIMBYTown attendees the lowdown on how advocates can use the Fair Housing Act to combat exclusionary zoning in a panel that will take place on November 18. Just typing all of that out is exhausting! PRRAC hopes to see Update readers at these various conferences. Other news and resourcesUrban Institute on Housing Shortgages (or Lack Thereof) by Region: Scholar Rolf Pendall and PRRAC SSAB member Yonah Freemark have a great analysisfor the Urban Institute of how housing supply varies in relation to need by region within the U.S. The post makes clear that, although there are regions that are not supply constrained, zoning reform can still play an important role in all market types, including because of its potential to foster more racially and economically integrated communities. Still, other policy interventions beyond zoning reform are badly needed to ensure affordability and safe, habitable conditions in high-vacancy regional housing markets. ICYMI – the PRRAC Perspective: On October 22, PRRAC launched the PRRAC Perspective, an exciting new publication where the team steps back from the news cycle to say what the organization thinks. Its first two pieces outlined green shoots for efforts to build common ground among YIMBYs and tenant organizers and practical ways of refining the Montgomery County, Maryland social housing model to better align it with housing justice principles. The PRRAC Update will be cross-posted to the PRRAC Perspective on the days that it is circulated, but readers can also continue to receive it in the way that they always have. Join PRRAC and NCSD for a Fundraiser in Boston – November 4: Join PRRAC and the National Coalition on School Diversity in Boston for a fundraiser co-hosted by our Board member Justin Steil at La Sala in Roxbury at 6:30 PM local time on Wednesday, November 4. We will be honoring Henry Korman of Klein Hornig, a longtime partner of PRRAC, for his incredible pro bono contributions to our organization. There will also be a stimulating conversation about housing, schools, and the fight for racial equity in Boston, moderated by Justin and featuring Karilyn Crockett of MIT and José López of Boston Public Schools. Grab your ticket here! A Break from the Parade of Horribles – Horror Movies: If one is fixated on the Latin roots of English words, horror movies probably are not the most fitting break from a parade of horribles. Still, it is two days before Halloween, so what else could we possibly do? Here are the PRRAC team’s favorites:
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