Citizens Committee for Faraday Wood v. John v. Lindsay, Mayor of the City of New York

The majority opinion proposes a double constitutional standard in housing cases — “strict” equal protection if a housing project contemplates a very high percentage of, or exclusively, low income units, and simple “rationality” if it includes a goodly percentage of middle income units — apparently on the theory that middle income housing is for white people and low income housing for nonwhites. As such the opinion carries with it its own abnegation of previous precedents of this and other courts and, with all respect, unrealistically overlooks the fact that this particular project, like many…