Already endangered as an environmental enforcement tool, a long-standing tenet of federal civil rights policy is now headed for extinction if President Donald Trump gets his way.
In a Wednesday executive order, titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” Trump instructed the Justice Department to repeal or amend regulations for EPA and other agencies that resort to consideration of “disparate impact” in weighing the potentially discriminatory effects of government decisions.
In addition, the order says, all agencies “shall deprioritize enforcement of all statutes and regulations to the extent they include disparate-impact liability.”
While Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act bars states and other recipients of federal aid from discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin, the consideration of disparate impacts allows regulators to more broadly scrutinize whether policies carry inequitable effects even if unintended.
