The Chronicle has an article today about the lawsuit in Chicago against Craigslist for apparent violations of Fair Housing laws.

“A Chicago public interest group has sued the popular online classified service Craigslist for allegedly publishing housing ads that discriminate against prospective tenants on the basis of race, gender and religion. The suit, filed this week in federal court in Chicago by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, accuses Craigslist of violating fair-housing laws by allowing users to post ads with language including “no minorities” and “Requirements: Clean Godly Christian male.”"

“Discriminatory housing advertisements contaminate the housing market, stigmatize the people who are discouraged or excluded from housing, and mislead people into thinking that it is normal and acceptable to select tenants on the basis of race, gender, religion or family status,” Laurie Wardell, one of the attorneys behind the lawsuit, said in a statement.

But Craig sees it differently and says so on his blog, “we’re being sued for an extremely small number of postings by a few of our users, in many cases for phrases like “near a church” or “there’s a kosher deli around the corner.”"

And offers a plea: “Folks, PLEASE HELP US OUT and keep flagging bad stuff of any kind”

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