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Property Keyed to Sprankling
Shelley v. Kraemer
Citation:
334 U.S. 1, 68 S. Ct. 836, 92 L. Ed. 1161 (1948)
ProfessorTodd Berman
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
In 1911, a restrictive covenant was created for a St. Louis neighborhood, providing that property could not be occupied by people of “negro or Mongolian race” for a period of 50 years. In 1945, the Shelleys, an African American family, purchased a home in this neighborhood, unaware of the restrictive covenant. Louis Kraemer, who owned property in the same neighborhood, sued to enforce the covenant and prevent the Shelleys from taking possession of their property. Similar cases arose in Michigan and Washington D.C., where African American families faced legal challenges based on racially restrictive covenants. These cases were consolidated for review by the Supreme Court to address the constitutional question of whether judicial enforcement of these private agreements violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
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