What Happened: Shortly after the Gaza war broke out, a first-generation Palestinian American hung a handmade Palestinian flag outside her apartment window to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. The manager asked her to take it down, explaining that management wanted to “stay neutral” and required tenants to remain neutral as well. The tenant refused and 10 days later received an eviction notice listing the cause of eviction as violating the lease provision governing how she displayed the flag from the window. Claiming that this was just a pretext, the tenant sued for discrimination. Her argument: Requiring tenants to stay neutral in a conflict concerning their home countries violates the Fair Housing Act (FHA) ban on national origin discrimination. The Illinois federal court ruled that the tenant didn’t have a legally valid claim and dismissed the case without a trial.

Ruling: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the lower court’s ruling.

Reasoning: The tenant didn’t claim and there was no evidence to suggest that the landlord created or implemented the neutrality policy with an intent to discriminate, such as by allowing other tenants to display Israeli flags or allowing tenants who weren’t Palestinian to display either flag during the Gaza conflict. Nor did she allege that the neutrality policy had a disparate impact on Palestinians or explain what those negative impacts were. Based on how the complaint was written, the Court concluded that the tenant was essentially claiming that the landlord punished her for her political views and actions in support of the Palestinian cause. And while that may be true, political expression isn’t a ground for protection under the FHA. 

• Farhan v. 2715 NMA LLC, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 31629, 161 F.4th 475, 2025 LX 519140, 2025 WL 3485574