Justice Department settlement gives new power to campuses over emotional support animals

Abstract

The Justice Department and the University of Nebraska at Kearney recently settled their Fair Housing Act emotional support animal litigation with a court‐approved consent judgment. The court judgment sets a legal precedent, providing campus residence halls more flexibility in assessing student claims for emotional support animals. For the first time, the government has acknowledged that campus residence halls are different from traditional single‐family apartments, and that the differences sometimes may justify refusing a particular request to keep an emotional support animal in certain housing.