The Verge, February 1st, 2019: Automated background checks are deciding who’s fit for a home
Federal law prohibits landlords from selecting their tenants based on protected characteristics — an applicant’s race, sex, or religion, can’t be used to determine whether they’re offered a place to live. But criminal records are more complex. If a record involves property damage, for example, a landlord might be within their legal right to decline an application, on the basis that it indicates a potential problem in the future.
In the past few years, some of the boundaries of those protections have been extended. The Supreme Court, in a major 5–4 decision in 2015, ruled that the law extended to decisions that disproportionately affected certain groups, even if it was indirectly.
