Chuck Darwin<p>Federal judge rolls back key <a href="https://c.im/tags/civil" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>civil</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/rights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rights</span></a> protections in Louisiana’s ‘<a href="https://c.im/tags/sacrifice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sacrifice</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/zones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>zones</span></a>’</p><p>The decision could open the door for other industry-friendly states to follow suit</p><p>James Cain, a federal judge in Louisiana who was appointed by president Trump, <br>decided to <br>block the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice from pursuing enforcement actions based on <br>“<a href="https://c.im/tags/disparate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>disparate</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/impacts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>impacts</span></a>” <br>— or the idea that a 🔸regulation might disproportionately harm one group of people over another. 🔸</p><p>A provision of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as <a href="https://c.im/tags/TitleVI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TitleVI</span></a> allows federal agencies to take action against state policies and programs that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. </p><p>Since the EPA’s founding in 1970, however, the agency allowed most of the Title VI complaints that it received to languish without resolution. </p><p>In 2015, a coalition of community groups in Louisiana, <br>with the assistance of the public-interest environmental law organization <a href="https://c.im/tags/Earthjustice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Earthjustice</span></a>, <br>sued the agency for this practice and won. </p><p>Five years later, after president Biden took office, <br>✅federal regulators finally began addressing the civil rights complaints they received and <br>✅the EPA announced a civil-rights <a href="https://c.im/tags/probe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>probe</span></a> into <a href="https://c.im/tags/Cancer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cancer</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Alley" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Alley</span></a> <br>— a stretch of land on the lower Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where <br>💥over 150 chemical plants pump cancer-causing chemicals into the air of predominantly Black communities💥<br> — marking 💪🏽a new phase of the agency’s use of Title VI.</p><p>The federal government was making significant progress with Louisiana officials in their Title VI negotiations:</p><p>Cancer Alley residents’ principle demand <br>— that state regulators assess whether a community is already exposed to disproportionately high levels of pollution before permitting a new project there <br>— had made it into a draft resolution document. </p><p>❗️But at a certain point in the process, sources told Grist, the talks broke down.</p><p>⚠️Then in May 2023, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jeff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jeff</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Landry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Landry</span></a>, then the attorney general (and now the <a href="https://c.im/tags/governor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>governor</span></a>) of Louisiana, <br>filed a lawsuit against the EPA. </p><p>On the basis that the agency was overstepping its authority, 💥Landry’s suit challenged not only the EPA’s use of Title VI to regulate pollution in Louisiana, <br>but 💥also the very legal justification of "<a href="https://c.im/tags/disparate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>disparate</span></a>-<a href="https://c.im/tags/impacts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>impacts</span></a>" regulation, 👉which reaches thousands of programs across the country <br>👉and can be used to adjudicate decisions as varied as where a new highway can go or whether a housing practice is discriminatory. </p><p>🆘Advocates worried that the lawsuit had the potential to unravel decades of civil rights law. </p><p>Judge Cain’s final judgment concurs with Landry’s argument. </p><p>🔥In effect, the ruling will make it impossible for the EPA to pursue enforcement actions based on disparate impacts <br>— but only in Louisiana. </p><p>Cain’s judgment comes in the same week as ❗️the EPA’s new Title VI guidance, <br>which urges state and local regulators to establish safeguards that protect their constituents against discrimination. <br><a href="https://grist.org/equity/title-vi-epa-james-cain-louisiana/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">grist.org/equity/title-vi-epa-</span><span class="invisible">james-cain-louisiana/</span></a></p>