Judges take aim at time limits in ‘Cancer Alley’ civil rights rematch

By Sean Reilly | 10/08/2024 01:52 PM EDT

Three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the case over a Louisiana parish’s allegedly racist land use plan.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

A man walks in front of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The court heard arguments this week in a case over land use plans in "Cancer Alley." Jonathan Bachman/AP

A landmark environmental racism case that will impact “Cancer Alley” residents and potentially the Biden administration’s environmental justice agenda may hinge on a legal rigidity: the statute of limitations.

“It’s a hefty case” with “very interesting” issues, Judge Carl Stewart of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday as the oral arguments ended after about 50 minutes. “We’ll figure it out the best we can.”

Inclusive Louisiana, a nonprofit advocacy group, and two other challengers are seeking to overturn a lower court’s dismissal last year of their lawsuit contesting the St. James Parish zoning framework that they say unlawfully crams industrial development into two majority-Black districts in the industrialized Mississippi River corridor often dubbed Cancer Alley.

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The plan was initially approved in 2014. As one reason for tossing the suit last November, Senior U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier found that it was filed after a one-year statute of limitations ran out. The challengers counter that the plan perpetuated a policy of discrimination that has left Black residents disproportionately exposed to toxic air pollution.

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