Mortgage lenders looking for some certainty as to whether the disparate impact theory of discrimination applies under the Fair Housing Act will be disappointed to learn they’ll have to wait. In the key case of Magner v. Gallagher, the city of St. Paul, MN, suddenly removed its challenge to an appellate court ruling on this question, precisely because it thought it would prevail. City leaders came to believe that a victory could substantially undermine important civil rights enforcement as it relates to housing throughout the nation, and that was a price they didn’t want to ...