On December 9, 2025, the Department of Justice issued a final rule eliminating key parts of its Title VI civil-rights regulations that recognized disparate-impact discrimination. With this move, DOJ is signaling that individuals and communities can no longer rely on disparate-impact standards to challenge federally funded policies that disproportionately harm people of color—even when no one admits discriminatory intent.
Why This Matters
Most contemporary discrimination is structural, not explicit. It lives in “neutral” policies that repeatedly produce unequal outcomes: transit cuts that isolate Black neighborhoods, school funding formulas that deepen racial gaps, hospital closures that target low-income communities.
For decades, disparate-impact rules were one of the only legal tools capable of confronting these patterns. Removing them means communities must once again prove intentional discrimination—an almost impossible bar when institutions know how to avoid leaving evidence.
Part of a Larger Strategy
This change is not an isolated action. It follows a broader, government-wide effort to minimize or eliminate disparate-impact enforcement across agencies—from EEOC shutting down disparate-impact investigations to HUD advancing rules that weaken fair-housing protections.
What Happens Now
Without Title VI disparate-impact protections:
School districts, transit agencies, and state programs receiving federal funds will have more cover to adopt policies that widen racial disparities.
Communities facing disproportionate harm, from discipline policies to housing decisions, will have fewer avenues to challenge systemic inequity.
This rollback is significant, but not final. Here’s where pressure can make a difference:
Call to Action
How to respond:
• Support congressional efforts to restore explicit disparate-impact authority.
• Urge state legislatures, school boards, and housing agencies to adopt state-level protections.
• Back litigation that challenges the rollback.
• Keep this issue visible in your networks and communities.
DOJ is signaling that individuals and communities can no longer rely on disparate-impact standards to challenge federally funded policies that disproportionately harm people of color—even when no one admits discriminatory intent.
— Michelle Kang, Democratic Candidate for Georgia State House District 99
