Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the most important decision on fair housing in a generation. He’ll almost certainly get to see it overturned in his lifetime.

When Kennedy announced his long-rumored retirement on Wednesday, he shined a spotlight on the tenuous political balance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Famously a swing vote, Kennedy sided with the court’s four liberal justices on defining decisions on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and other hot-button social issues. — City Lab

California’s Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the principal architects for a condominium project may be sued directly by a condominium homeowners association for design defects. [...]

The decision held that even though, on most projects, the developer has the final say on design choices, the architect can’t escape liability to the end user. This decision is likely to give homeowners associations another target in defect cases. — bdcnetwork.com

If women can’t always rely on legislation to support their cause, could they rely on architects? [...]

Brown says it’s time for the design community to take a stand on women’s reproductive rights. “Architects have to become more politically engaged in our built environment.” To that end, Brown is helping organize a design competition that will rethink a privacy fence for Mississippi’s only abortion clinic. — fastcodesign.com

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law that barred protests near abortion clinics.

The law, enacted in 2007, created 35-foot buffer zones around entrances to abortion clinics. State officials said the law was a response to a history of harassment and violence at abortion clinics in Massachusetts, including a shooting rampage at two facilities in 1994.

The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds by opponents of abortion — nytimes.com