Disparate Impact Is Abolished

President Donald Trump’s April 23, 2025, executive order, “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” directed all federal agencies to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability “in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the Constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals.”

Today, the Justice Department issued the final rule to make that happen. It will affect lawsuits, college entrance, promotions, etc.

Disparate Impact is a relic from the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The principle is anti-constitutional. It demands that everyone have the same outcomes instead of the same opportunities. It has infiltrated our court systems and all agencies of government.

Disparate impact refers to policies or practices that, while neutral on their face, disproportionately affect a protected group, leading to unequal outcomes without the need to prove intentional discrimination.

Press Release

Today, the Justice Department issued a final rule updating its regulations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This rule ensures that our nation’s federal civil rights laws are firmly grounded in the principle of equal treatment under the law by eliminating disparate-impact liability from its Title VI regulations.

“For decades, the Justice Department has used disparate-impact liability to undermine the constitutional principle that all Americans must be treated equally under the law,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No longer. This Department of Justice is eliminating its regulations that, for far too long, required recipients of federal funding to make decisions based on race.”

“The prior ‘disparate impact’ regulations encouraged people to file lawsuits challenging racially neutral policies, without evidence of intentional discrimination,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “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.”

“For over 50 years, the prior disparate-impact rule fostered the very thing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited — discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. But with today’s rule,” said Chief of Staff and Supervisory Official for the Office of Legal Policy Nicholas Schilling. “The Department reaffirms Congress’ commitment to measure all Americans by merit.”