Simple English definitions for legal terms
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Shelley v. Kraemer is a court case that said it's not okay to have rules in property deeds that say only white people can buy the property. In 1945, a black family bought a house without knowing about the rule, and white neighbors tried to stop them from moving in. The Supreme Court said that this rule is not fair and goes against the law that says everyone should be treated equally. This case helped make it easier for black people to buy homes in neighborhoods where they were not allowed before.
Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) is a U.S. Supreme Court case that said that it's unconstitutional to have rules in property deeds that stop people who aren't white from buying property. This goes against the Fourteenth Amendment, which says that everyone should be treated equally under the law.
For example, in 1911, a lot of people who owned property in a neighborhood made a rule that said that no one who wasn't white could buy property there. In 1945, a Black family called the Shelleys bought a property there without knowing about the rule. The Kraemers, who were white, and other neighbors tried to stop the Shelleys from owning the property because of the rule. The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the rule and said that the Shelleys couldn't own the property.
The U.S. Supreme Court looked at the Shelleys' case to see if the rule was against the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court said that the rule was against the Fourteenth Amendment because it stopped Black people from buying property just because of their race. The Supreme Court said that even though the rule was made by private people, the Fourteenth Amendment still applied because the government was enforcing the rule.
Shelley v. Kraemer was important because it stopped people from making rules that stopped Black people from living in certain neighborhoods. This helped to make sure that Black people had more rights during a time when they were treated unfairly.