Stop investigating civil rights cases based on disparate impact
What the document says“the new Administration should also direct the department and DOJ jointly to issue enforcement guidance stating that the agencies will no longer investigate Title VI cases that exclusively rest on allegations of disparate impact.”
Title VI bars discrimination on grounds of race, color or national origin in federally funded programs. Disparate impact refers to a policy that produces unequal outcomes without discriminatory intent. The chapter says sweeping action is needed so that the purpose of the Civil Rights Act is not inverted through a disparate impact standard, and asks for a regulation clarifying the point.
What the document actually says“the new Administration should also direct the department and DOJ jointly to issue enforcement guidance stating that the agencies will no longer investigate Title VI cases that exclusively rest on allegations of disparate impact.”
Tell both agencies to drop these cases. They rest only on who ends up worse off.
A school rule can hit one group harder than others. That can count as discrimination even if it was not meant. The book says such cases should not be looked into.
Rescinding Portions of the Department of Education Title VI Regulations To Align With the Statutory Text and Conform to Executive Order 14281
2026-07-24 · 91 FR 46733
The Education Department's final rule of July 24, 2026 amends its Title VI regulations to eliminate disparate-impact liability, implementing Executive Order 14281 and following the Justice Department's change to its own Title VI regulations effective December 10, 2025. The department the passage names did the thing the passage asks for, by the regulation it asks for. The fit breaks down on the rest of the ask: this is a rule about what the regulations make unlawful, not the joint enforcement guidance from the department and the Justice Department that the passage calls for, so it does not say which complaints will or will not be investigated. Agriculture, Homeland Security, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration made the same change to their own Title VI rules.
A rule of July 24, 2026 changes the school agency's civil rights rules to drop disparate impact claims. The agency the passage names acted, by the route it named. But the passage asked for joint guidance with the justice side. This rule says what is unlawful, not which claims get looked into.