The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Shelley v. Kraemer, that:

• A. The government could not regulate private contracts
• B. The government could not assist in enforcing a discriminatory private deed restriction
• C. Private deed restrictions were unconstitutional
• D. Zoning boards could not enforce covenants

Answer: (B)

Shelley v. Kraemer centers on how state power interacts with private racial covenants in housing. The Supreme Court held that private agreements restricting property sales to people of a certain race are not illegal simply for being private, but when the state’s courts enforce those covenants, that enforcement becomes state action. Because state action enforcing discriminatory private deals violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, the government cannot assist in enforcing such a private deed restriction. Private covenants can exist as private contracts, but the state cannot back them in court.

The other ideas don’t fit as neatly: the ruling isn’t a broad ban on regulating private contracts, nor does it declare private covenants unconstitutional by themselves. It also doesn’t focus on zoning boards as the central issue; the key point is that state enforcement of discriminatory covenants is unconstitutional.