The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday issued a sweeping final rule eliminating all “disparate-impact” liability from its Title VI regulations, restoring the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to its original meaning and dismantling one of the Left’s most powerful tools for race-based social engineering.
Under the old rule, plaintiffs could challenge policies that were race-neutral on their face if those policies resulted in statistically different outcomes among racial groups.
No proof of intentional discrimination was required; showing impact alone was enough to trigger federal scrutiny or litigation.
The DOJ has now ended that standard. Going forward, Title VI cases handled by the Department will require evidence of intentional discrimination, not just statistical disparities.
Officials argue that the disparate-impact model pressured schools, agencies, and businesses into making decisions based on race to avoid lawsuits, effectively encouraging quota-style decision-making.
This decision follows President Donald Trump’s April 23, 2025 executive order, “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” which 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.”
Read the press release below:
The Justice Department issued a final rule updating its regulations under Title VI of the Civil Rights 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.”
Congress enacted Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, as part of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance. In 1973, the federal government added to the law a new rule — disparate impact — that was not part of the law. The term “disparate impact” refers to the concept of imposing liability on a federal fund recipient only because there may be different outcomes for different people, not based on prejudice or intent. That prior disparate-impact rule was already enjoined in one state, prohibiting DOJ from enforcing it there.
The Department’s new rule reflects the best reading of Title VI, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized for over twenty years. Title VI has and will continue to prohibit intentional discrimination. The Department’s new rule ensures that recipients of federal funding will be judged on their actual conduct, not on statistical outcomes or circumstances beyond their control.
Despite decades of case law, the Department’s prior Title VI disparate-impact regulations remained on the books, sowing confusion and creating costly compliance obligations for states, local governments, nonprofits, and private organizations receiving federal financial assistance. This new rule eliminates these burdens, promotes consistent enforcement across agencies, and restores public confidence in civil rights law by aligning the Department’s regulations with the Constitution.
Back to equality under the law https://t.co/4zj2ejgXKp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2025
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