Final answer:
A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion is called a restrictive covenant. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
Step-by-step explanation:
A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion is called a restrictive covenant. However, judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
Restrictive covenants were written into the deeds of homes sold especially during the Jim Crow era to limit the geographic distribution of African Americans and other ethnic minorities. These covenants not only prohibited owners from selling their properties to certain ethnicities but also restricted owners from doing mundane things like building additions to their homes.
Supreme Court decisions in cases such as Buchanan v Warley (1917) and Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) ruled that enforcing restrictive covenants in court violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thus were unconstitutional.