On October 7, 2016, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, alongside the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Human Rights, the National Consumer Law Center, Impact Fund, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and the ACLU Foundation, filed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in support of the City of Miami. This brief highlighted how racially discriminatory lending practices were a major cause of residential segregation in this county, how the Fair Housing Act was specifically designed to address the systemic problems associated with residential segregation, and how the predatory and discriminatory lending practices by banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo have been perpetuating the harms of residential segregation.
The Supreme Court issued its decision on Bank of America v. Miami, Case No. 15-1111, May 1, 2017, finding that Miami fell within the “zone of interests” with respect to the Fair Housing Act sufficient to have standing to sue. The Supreme Court remanded to the Eleventh Circuit to determine whether the banks’ misconduct was the proximate cause of the City of Miami’s financial injuries.
Due to this decision, several cities have now filed suit or filed amended complaints against banks under similar theories put forth by the City of Miami. As of October 2017, Cohen Milstein is working with the same civil rights groups noted above on another amicus brief in support the City of Oakland in its lawsuit against Wells Fargo, titled City of Oakland v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Case No. 3:2015cv04321, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.