DOJ Rolls Back Anti-Discrimination Rules

The Justice Department on Tuesday moved to end long-standing civil rights policies that prohibit local governments and organizations that receive federal funding from maintaining policies that disproportionately harm people of color.

Repealing the government’s 50-year-old “disparate impact” standards will make it harder to challenge potential bias in housing, criminal law, employment, environmental regulations and other policy areas.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, color, or national origin.” The Justice Department and the courts have historically interpreted the law as a ban on intentional discrimination as well as policies that, in practice, have a “disparate impact” on one group of people.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April that directed agencies to eliminate disparate-impact liability wherever possible.

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The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund described the move as an unprecedented and dangerous step.

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Harmeet Dhillon, DOJ’s civil rights chief, highlighted that the rule change will lead to fewer civil rights lawsuits — cases she characterized as frequently overreaching.

“The prior ‘disparate impact’ regulations encouraged people to file lawsuits challenging racially neutral policies, without evidence of intentional discrimination,” Dhillon said in a statement. “Our rejection of this theory will restore true equality under the law by requiring proof of actual discrimination, rather than enforcing race- or sex-based quotas or assumptions.”

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