DOJ Issues Final Rule Eliminating Disparate Impact from its Title VI Enforcement Regulations

On December 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") issued a final rule amending its regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) to eliminate the disparate-impact prohibitions in the rule. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs receiving federal financial assistance. The prior DOJ regulations implemented this prohibition to extend beyond intentional discrimination and prohibit facially neutral actions that result in disparate impacts, or disproportionate adverse effects, on protected classes. 

DOJ takes the position that the disparate impact requirements in the prior regulations are beyond the agency's statutory authority under Title VI. The final rule notes that the previous DOJ regulations prohibiting conduct that has an unintentional disparate impact “are in considerable tension" with both Title VI and the Constitution, and the amendments will serve “to more closely align [DOJ's] regulations with the language that Congress enacted in Title VI prohibiting intentional discriminatory conduct.” DOJ rescinded several portions of its Title VI implementing regulations, including:

• The full text of 28 C.F.R. § 42.104(b)(2), which prohibited the utilization of “criteria or methods of administration which have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination because of their race, color, or national origin”
• The two uses of the phrase “or effect” from 28 C.F.R. § 42.104(b)(3), which provided that a funding recipient may not make selections of a site or location of facilities with the “purpose or effect” of discriminating, or “with the purpose or effect of defeating or substantially impairing the accomplishment of the objectives of” Title VI or DOJ's implementing regulations
• The full text of 28 C.F.R. § 42.104(b)(6), which authorized a funding recipient to take affirmative action “to overcome the effects of conditions which resulted in limiting participation by persons of a particular race, color, or national origin”

Under the prior regulations, Title VI served as an enforcement mechanism to implement Environmental Justice ("EJ")—a framework that has faced increased scrutiny under the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda, and DOJ's final rule aligns with the administration's broader trend of administrative rollback on enforcement of EJ-related issues. While federal EJ requirements and tools have become stale, these changes do not disturb state legislative and state court mandates concerning EJ, and industry should stay apprised of jurisdictional developments as this legal landscape continues to evolve.

For more information and updates regarding this topic, contact Liskow attorneys Greg Johnson, Clare Bienvenu, Emily von Qualen, and Colin North, and visit Liskow's The Louisiana Industrial Insights Hub.