America First Legal asks CFPB to rescind rule requiring mortgage applicants to disclose race, sex

America First Legal filed a formal petition Monday that urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to rescind a rule that forces mortgage applicants to reveal certain demographic information and then pushes lenders to make decisions based on it.

The petition targets the bureau's Regulation C that was enacted in the 1970s to address historic housing discrimination, which requires people to disclose their race, ethnicity, and sex in their mortgage applications. 

The legal foundation argued that the regulation exposes Americans to race and sex-based discrimination and violates federal civil rights law and the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

“The federal government has no business forcing Americans to disclose their race or sex as a condition of applying for a mortgage,” Gene Hamilton, President of America First Legal, said in a statement. “Regulation C pressures lenders to sort borrowers by immutable characteristics and invites discrimination under the guise of ‘equity.’ That is incompatible with civil rights law, the Constitution, and the principle that lending decisions should be based on merit and creditworthiness — not race or sex.”

The petition also urges the CFPB to create a "neutral, colorblind framework" for mortgage lending.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.