How Three 42 U.S.C. 3604 Lists Differ

The cited text uses different lists in 42 U.S.C. 3604(a), (c), and (d). Section 3604(a) names six characteristics; subsections (c) and (d) include “handicap” in a seven-characteristic list. The cited HUD regulation at 24 CFR 100.5(a) uses the seven-characteristic list, and 24 CFR 110.25(a) prescribes a poster legend including the phrase “FAMILIAL STATUS (HAVING ONE OR MORE CHILDREN).” This article compares those quoted provisions without describing the Act’s full protection scheme.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• Section 3604(a) of the Fair Housing Act bars discrimination “because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin” — six characteristics, without “handicap.” (See Section 3604(a) below.)
• Sections 3604(c) and 3604(d) both bar discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin” — seven characteristics, including “handicap.” (See Subsections 3604(c) and (d) below.)
• HUD’s regulation at 24 CFR 100.5(a) restates the same seven-characteristic list: “race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.” (See HUD’s regulation below.)
• The required fair housing poster prescribed at 24 CFR 110.25(a) includes the fixed legend text “FAMILIAL STATUS (HAVING ONE OR MORE CHILDREN).” (See the poster requirement below.)
• The statute quoted here is the current codified text, the “United States Code, 2024 Edition.” (See where this text comes from below.)

Where this text comes from

The quotes below come from the current codified text of the Fair Housing Act, the “United States Code, 2024 Edition”, at 42 U.S.C. § 3604. That single statute contains more than one list of protected characteristics: different subsections address different acts — selling or renting housing, making discriminatory statements, and misrepresenting availability — and the lists in each subsection are not identical.

No handicap in Section 3604(a)

Section 3604(a) is the provision that bars refusing to sell or rent a dwelling, or otherwise making a dwelling unavailable, to a person because of a protected characteristic. Its text bars discrimination “because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin” (USCODE, 42 U.S.C. § 3604). That is six characteristics. “Handicap” is not one of the words in this particular subsection’s list.

Handicap added in (c) and (d)

Subsections 3604(c) and 3604(d) address different conduct — making, printing, or publishing a discriminatory notice or statement under (c), and falsely denying that a dwelling is available under (d). Both subsections use a longer list: discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin” (USCODE, 42 U.S.C. § 3604). That is seven characteristics — the same six words that appear in subsection (a), plus “handicap.”

Read together, the statute’s own text shows that “handicap” does not appear in every subsection’s list of protected characteristics. It is present in (c) and (d) and absent from (a).

HUD’s regulation restates all seven together

HUD’s implementing regulation at 24 CFR 100.5(a) does not split the characteristics by subsection. It restates a single seven-characteristic list: “race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin” (eCFR, 24 CFR § 100.5). This is the same seven-word list found in subsections 3604(c) and (d) of the statute.

The required poster defines “familial status”

Separately, HUD’s poster regulation at 24 CFR 110.25(a) prescribes the exact wording that must appear on the official fair housing poster. That prescribed legend includes the phrase “FAMILIAL STATUS (HAVING ONE OR MORE CHILDREN)” (eCFR, 24 CFR § 110.25). The parenthetical is part of the poster’s own required text — it is HUD’s plain-language clarification, printed on the poster itself, of what “familial status” means as a protected characteristic.

What this text does not decide

This article covers only what these three federal records — the statute at 42 U.S.C. § 3604 and the two HUD regulations at 24 CFR 100.5(a) and 110.25(a) — say about which characteristics are named as protected and how the wording differs between subsections. It does not cover state or local protected classes, which fall outside the federal text reviewed here. It does not address whether any particular incident or practice is unlawful under the Act — that depends on facts and legal analysis beyond what these provisions state. And it does not cover the exemptions found elsewhere in the statute, at Section 3603(b) and Section 3607; those sections were not examined here.

Source links

• 42 U.S.C. § 3604 — United States Code, 2024 Edition
• 24 CFR § 100.5 — eCFR
• 24 CFR § 110.25 — eCFR