Legislative Powers — NextGen Bar practice question

Congress enacts a statute forbidding any private property owner from refusing to sell or rent a home to a prospective buyer or tenant because of the person's race. A homeowner who turned away a qualified buyer on racial grounds is sued under the statute and asks the court to dismiss the suit. She argues that Congress has no power to regulate a purely private real-estate transaction that involves no government action and no showing that her sale would affect interstate commerce in any way.

Which congressional power most directly supports this statute?

Option A. Incorrect answer. The Fourteenth Amendment's power to remedy state denials of equal protection.
Option B. Incorrect answer. The Fifteenth Amendment's power to prevent racial discrimination in voting.
Option C. Correct answer. The Thirteenth Amendment's power to bar the badges of slavery.Correct
Option D. Incorrect answer. The taxing power's authority to raise revenue from real-estate transactions.

Why

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and, unlike the Fourteenth and Fifteenth, contains no state-action requirement, so it reaches private conduct directly. Congress may rationally determine the "badges and incidents of slavery" and legislate against them, and it has used that power to ban private racial discrimination in the sale and rental of property — exactly this statute (C). A fails because the Fourteenth Amendment reaches only state action, and this defendant is a private homeowner. B is off point: the Fifteenth Amendment concerns racial discrimination in voting, not housing. D mischaracterizes an anti-discrimination command as a revenue measure; it collects no tax. (Congress could alternatively rest the ban on the commerce power, but among the choices offered, the Thirteenth Amendment is the direct fit for reaching a private actor.) The Thirteenth Amendment is the answer.

Why