Corrigan v. Buckley: Supreme Court Upholds Racial Restrictive Covenants

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld racially restrictive housing covenants in Corrigan v. Buckley (1926), ruling that covenants barring Black buyers were private contracts beyond the reach of the Constitution. The case arose from a Washington, D.C. neighborhood covenant. The ruling gave federal legal sanction to racially exclusionary housing deeds that were already widespread. By 1940, an estimated 80% of Chicago and Los Angeles housing stock was covered by such covenants. The decision was not reversed until Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948.