SAN DIEGO - A lawsuit brought by the Fair Housing Councils of San Fernando Valley and San Diego, alleging a roommate-matching Web site violates housing laws by posting ads for certain genders or sexual orientations, among other criteria, was reinstated today by a federal appeals panel.

The Fair Housing Councils accused Roommates.com of violating the Fair Housing Act, which bars discrimination in rentals.

A trial judge in Los Angeles previously ruled that Roommates.com was protected because its users create the content for the ads.

But in a ruling that included a partial dissent, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that because Roommates.com ads are created via questionnaires with pull-down options, the site is a "content provider." That means it can be sued for alleged violations, Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski wrote in the main portion of the ruling.

"By categorizing, channeling and limiting the distribution of users' profiles, Roommate provides an additional layer of information that it is `responsible' at least `in part' for creating or developing," Kozinski wrote.

The main ruling does state, however, that the site could not be held liable for what its users wrote in the open comments section of the roommate questionnaires.

Circuit Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote a concurring opinion.

Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt penned a partial dissent and partial concurrence, holding that the Web site should not be immune from suit over what was posted in the comments section of the ads.

The decision sends the suit back to a judge in Los Angeles for a determination on whether the questionnaires actually violate the Fair Housing Act.