Over the past fourteen months, executive and administrative actions have repeatedly undercut disparate impact as a theory of liability under federal civil rights law. An Executive Order in April 2025 directed agencies to deprioritize disparate impact enforcement. Agency action followed, including: an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) directive in September 2025 ordering investigators to close all pending disparate impact charges; a Department of Justice (DOJ) final rule in December 2025 removing disparate impact liability from its Title VI implementing regulations; a DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion issued on June 9, 2026 concluding that the EEOC’s Title VII disparate impact guidelines are unconstitutional as currently applied; and, most recently, the Department of Education (ED)’s final rule effective July 24, 2026 rescinding the ED’s own Title VI disparate impact regulations.
For colleges and universities, the practical implications of these changes are nuanced… Read the complete article here...
Copyright © 2026, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. All Rights Reserved.
