Shelley v. Kraemer

The Court held that courts may not enforce racially restrictive covenants in property deeds, because judicial enforcement is state action.

Overview

J.D. and Ethel Shelley, a Black family, bought a house in St. Louis covered by a covenant barring sale to Black buyers, and white neighbors including Louis Kraemer sued to block them from taking possession. Chief Justice Fred Vinson, writing for a unanimous Court of six after three justices recused themselves, held that private covenants alone did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, but that enforcement of them by state courts was state action denying equal protection. The ruling, argued in part by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP in a companion case, made such covenants unenforceable and became a cornerstone of the state action doctrine.