WSJ reports that numerous progressive groups chipped in to support the Mt. Holly settlement, which took the disparate impact case off the docket.

There’s no evidence that the Obama Administration played a direct role in scuttling the case this time, but its housing allies did. Mount Holly, the Ford Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the National Fair Housing Alliance and Self Help Community Development contributed money to a developer who will build new homes for the plaintiffs and other private buyers. That deal led to the settlement.

TRF Development Partners president Sean Closkey told us Friday that no one in the Obama Administration contacted him and only “private money” was used for the Mount Holly settlement. But these liberal housing groups are thrilled again to avoid a Supreme Court ruling on disparate impact in housing.

In the meantime, in those circuits where it is permissible, the disparate impact test will remain.