Jones v. Mayer Co. upheld Congress’s power to ban racial discrimination in property sales under the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
The case arose when Alfred H. Mayer Company refused to sell a home to Joseph Lee Jones, a Black man, in St. Louis County, Missouri. Jones sued under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibited racial discrimination in property transactions.
In a 1968 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could enforce the Thirteenth Amendment by prohibiting private racial discrimination in housing. The ruling rejected the company’s argument that the law exceeded congressional authority.
Jones v. Mayer Co. is distinct from Shelley v. Kraemer, the 1948 case involving judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants. It also reinforced the constitutional foundation for federal fair-housing protections.