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On Wednesday March 28th, King County Superior Court ruled that Seattle’s First in Time ordinance is void and Seattle landlords are no longer required to comply with its requirements.

The lawsuit, filed by Pacific Legal Foundation and which included RHAWA members as plaintiffs, successfully argued against the Seattle law as a violation of state constitutional protections for property rights found under Article 1, section 16 of the Washington State Constitution - “no private property shall be taken…for public or private use without just compensation.”

In her ruling, Judge Suzanne Parisien agreed with this argument ruling that First in Time violates the “private use” requirement” and noted that “the FIT rule is also an unreasonable means of pursuing anti-discrimination because of its sweeping overbreadth.”

Judge Parisien also stated that “choosing a tenant is a fundamental attribute of property ownership,” and that the few concessions granted to landlords in the law did not “substitute for the discretion to choose a specific tenant.” Judge Parisien noted that “the ability to negotiate, for instance – a key element of the right to freely dispose of property – was extinguished by the FIT rule.