Which 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case struck down racial restrictions in housing covenants?

Shelley v. Kraemer was the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down judicial enforcement of racial restrictions in housing covenants.

The case arose after a white St. Louis neighborhood property owner, Louis Kraemer, sought to prevent the Shelley family, who were Black, from purchasing a home covered by a restrictive covenant. The covenant prohibited the property from being sold to people who were not white. Missouri courts enforced the agreement, bringing the dispute to the Supreme Court.

The Court ruled that private individuals could create such agreements, but state courts could not enforce them because doing so constituted state action violating the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision therefore did not immediately make racial covenants disappear from property documents, but it prevented courts from compelling compliance with them.

Shelley v. Kraemer is often confused with Brown v. Board of Education, decided six years later. Brown addressed segregation in public schools, while Shelley concerned discrimination in residential property enforcement.