A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a Chicago landlord lawfully evicted a Palestinian-American for displaying a Palestinian flag in her apartment window.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a district court ruling, which held that Manal Farhan failed to prove claims of national origin discrimination or violations of the Fair Housing Act.
Farhan sued building owner M. Fishman and Company after her eviction. The property manager had instituted a building-wide neutrality policy about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Management took action after a tenant complained and told Farhan to remove the flag or face eviction.
She left the flag hanging and said it reflected pride in her heritage, which led management to serve an eviction notice, citing a violation of her lease terms.
Farhan sued, claiming that management would have evicted her even if the flag was hung inside her window, even as others were given that right without consequence. She did not specify in the suit if the other resident flags she alleged reflect any aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the judges wrote.
Management cited a clause in the lease that prohibits tenants from hanging objects outside their windows for safety reasons. Farhan alleged that it only cited that reason after the fact.
“Farhan pursued a novel and unsupported theory of liability under the FHA,” the Fair Housing Act, “that defendants’ application of a ‘neutrality’ policy requiring her, a Palestinian American, to remove a Palestinian flag was national origin discrimination prohibited by the FHA,” the judges wrote.
“She further asserted, erroneously, that a showing of discriminatory intent was not required at the pleading stage for her intentional discrimination claims, contrary to precedent,” they added. “While we stress that the allegations in Farhan’s complaint could perhaps, presented or defended differently, state a claim for discrimination under the FHA, we affirm the district court’s dismissal.”
In addition to a growing residential portfolio in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, landlord Mark Fishman owns the vintage Logan Theatre, which has faced boycott calls over the decision to evict Farhan.
