{"id":216805,"date":"2025-10-23T15:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=216805"},"modified":"2025-11-13T12:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:29:21","slug":"trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool","title":{"rendered":"Trump's Attempt to Roll Back Key Civil Rights-Enforcement Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1764,1763,1783,1750,2024,1751,1755,1769,2026,1768],"class_list":["post-216805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-advocacy-news","metadata-context","metadata-general-commentary","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-listicle-roundup","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-national-affiliate-staff","metadata-standard","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"full-bleed","header_image":216935,"mobile_header_image":216937,"description":"By rolling back \u201cdisparate impact\u201d rules, the administration threatens decades of progress against systemic discrimination in housing, jobs, and education.","authors":[2086,51303,2406],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"On April 23, President Donald Trump signed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/04\/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy\/\">executive order<\/a> aimed at narrowing civil rights protections and directing federal agencies to roll back the use of the disparate impact standard in \u201call contexts to the maximum degree,\u201d including across housing, lending, employment, education, and healthcare. The order represents a major reversal in civil rights protections undermining a critical enforcement tool that has for decades been used to challenge policies and practices that appear neutral but impose unjustified and discriminatory barriers for marginalized communities to housing, jobs, and more.\r\n\r\nJust last month, for example, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) \u2014 the federal agency responsible for enforcing worker rights \u2014 announced it would <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-discrimination-ai-eeoc-disparate-impact-a2e8aba11f3d3f095df95d488c6b3c40\">stop investigating complaints<\/a> about company policies that may disproportionately harm certain groups but don\u2019t discriminate explicitly. The shift undermines decades of progress in workplace equality, stripping away a key mechanism that has helped expose and remedy hidden bias."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What is Disparate Impact Liability?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"mark"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Federal civil rights laws protect against discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and age in housing, employment, education, and other aspects of society. When many of these laws were first enacted, they offered critical protections against overt forms of discrimination \u2014 like restaurants and stores that openly refused to serve Black customers \u2014 that not long before had been sanctioned by the federal government. At that time, Congress also recognized that discrimination isn\u2019t always about intent, but is often built into systems and policies, and that civil rights protections were necessary to remedy longstanding patterns of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/campaigns-initiatives\/systemic-equality-addressing-americas-legacy-of-racism-and-systemic-discrimination\">systemic inequality<\/a> in our country.\r\n\r\nFor these reasons, civil rights laws incorporate disparate-impact liability, which focuses on the consequences of policies on protected groups, not just the express motives for putting those policies in place. Ever since, disparate impact liability has been a vital tool in advancing equality. In 2014, the Supreme Court remarked on the role of disparate impact in <a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/576\/519\/#tab-opinion-3426534\"><i>Texas DHCA v. Inclusive Communities<\/i><\/a>:<b> \u201c<\/b>It permits plaintiffs to counteract unconscious prejudices and disguised animus that escape easy classification as disparate treatment. In this way disparate-impact liability may prevent [discrimination] that might otherwise result from covert and illicit stereotyping.\u201d"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"How Does Disparate Impact Liability Work?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"First, disparate impact analysis asks whether there is a disparity caused by a particular policy or practice. Second, it asks if there is a legitimate, nondiscriminatory need for the policy. If so, it asks if there is an alternative way to meet the need that does not result in disparate impact. Statistics are an important part of disparate impact analysis, but they are never the sole facet of inquiry. The multistep road map provided by disparate impact analysis allows for careful consideration.\r\n\r\nDisparate impact liability has advanced civil rights in many areas. In the housing sector, disparate impact suits <a href=\"https:\/\/caselaw.findlaw.com\/us-supreme-court\/488\/15.html\">have invalidated<\/a> housing restrictions that arbitrarily and unfairly exclude people of color from certain neighborhoods, perpetuating segregation. For example, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish blocked the construction of affordable, multi-family housing and restricted housing rentals to blood relatives in an area that was roughly 88 percent white and 7 percent Black. For no good reason, these actions made it harder for Black people to live in the area. Disparate impact analysis was applied to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.relmanlaw.com\/civil-rights-litigation\/cases\/stbernard-parish.php\">challenge and invalidate these acts<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe Department of Education has also signaled its intent to do away with disparate impact enforcement, despite the important role this tool serves in ensuring all students have access to educational opportunities. First, investigating disparate impact can reveal evidence of discriminatory treatment. It can also identify policies that unnecessarily deny students an equal educational opportunity when other approaches are possible. For example, a school may have a goal of reducing tardiness to maximize time in class. However, if Asian American students tend to live in a neighborhood furthest from the school and often experience bus delays, then the policy would cause them to receive a higher number of tardies, leading to school suspensions. A disparate impact analysis would prompt consideration of whether the school could redesign its bus routes to reduce delays, or look to alternatives to discipline for tardiness due to bus delays. Removing unfair and unnecessary barriers to education furthers equal opportunity. Ignoring them creates an unequal playing field for some schoolchildren.\r\n\r\nThe availability of disparate impact is also important for challenging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/blog\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice\/big-data-could-set-insurance-premiums-minorities-could\">emerging forms of discrimination<\/a>. In the age of big data, employers, lenders, insurers and others have increasing access to data about us \u2014 things like where you shop, whether you just got married, whether you are interested in products for Black hair. Access to this data makes it easier to differentiate and target groups and easier to produce disparate impacts, affecting whether you see a job opportunity, how much you are charged for health insurance, or whether you are marketed a loan with high-risk terms. Thinking about disparate impacts is critical to ensuring that advances in technology don\u2019t expand inequality and segregation."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"How is the ACLU Fighting Back?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The ACLU has long relied on disparate impact liability as a tool to remove systemic barriers to opportunity in housing, employment, education, and beyond for historically marginalized people. For example, the ACLU has fought to remove unjust barriers to housing opportunities for Black women and other renters of color by challenging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/how-eviction-brands-renters-with-a-scarlet-letter\">landlords\u2019 use of blanket bans on prior eviction records<\/a>, regardless of whether the eviction cases were dismissed, filed unlawfully, or occurred many years ago. The ACLU has also worked to end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/i-am-not-nuisance-local-ordinances-punish-victims-crime\">so-called \u201cnuisance\u201d and \u201ccrime-free\u201d ordinances<\/a> that unfairly and disproportionately jeopardize housing opportunities for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/womens-rights\/across-new-york-people-color-and-poor-can-face\">people of color<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/press-releases\/aclu-wins-settlement-end-housing-discrimination-case\">immigrant families<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/briggs-v-borough-norristown-et-al\">domestic violence survivors<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/womens-rights\/dialing-911-can-get-you-evicted\">people with disabilities<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU is committed to defending existing civil rights protections against disparate-impact discrimination. We have fought back against the administration\u2019s efforts to rollback these critical protections, including by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/aclu-adverse-comment-opposing-department-of-energy-direct-final-rule-eliminating-disparate-impact-and-other-nondiscrimination-regulations\">opposing the administration\u2019s recent attempts <\/a>to eliminate the Department of Energy\u2019s disparate impact regulations and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/press-releases\/aclu-civil-rights-orgs-file-suit-against-department-housing-and-urban-development\">challenging its past attempt <\/a>to gut the Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s existing disparate-impact standards. No one should be unfairly excluded from equal access to opportunities in housing, employment, and education based on arbitrary and discriminatory policies and practices."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148399],"issues":[46673,46373],"related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By rolling back \u201cdisparate impact\u201d rules, the Trump administration threatens decades of progress against systemic discrimination in housing, jobs, and education.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disparate Impact, Explained\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By rolling back \u201cdisparate impact\u201d rules, the Trump administration threatens decades of progress against systemic discrimination in housing, jobs, and education.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-23T19:39:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-13T17:29:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2025\/10\/equal-employment-opportunity-commision-s.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Hinger, Ricardo Mimbela, Linda Morris\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2025\/10\/equal-employment-opportunity-commision-s.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool\",\"name\":\"Disparate Impact, Explained\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-23T19:39:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-13T17:29:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"By rolling back \u201cdisparate impact\u201d rules, the Trump administration threatens decades of progress against systemic discrimination in housing, jobs, and education.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool\"]}],\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/sarah-hinger\",\"name\":\"Sarah Hinger\",\"jobTitle\":\"Deputy Director, ACLU Racial Justice Program\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/sarah-hinger\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/photo\/sarah-hinger\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/02\/sarah-hinger-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/02\/sarah-hinger-scaled.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Sarah Hinger\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ricardo-mimbela\",\"name\":\"Ricardo Mimbela\",\"jobTitle\":\"Communications Strategist, \",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/ricardo-mimbela\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/linda-morris\",\"name\":\"Linda Morris\",\"jobTitle\":\"Staff Attorney, ACLU Women's Rights Project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/linda-morris\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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