Michele DeShazo Analyzes Permanent Injunction Ruling Against the Biden Administration’s Civil Rights Act-based “Disparate Impact” Environmental Policy Regulations

Michele Hale DeShazo was quoted in an S&P Global Market Intelligence News article discussing a significant ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in a case challenging the Biden Administration's environmental justice policies.

The court issued a permanent injunction preventing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Justice Department from enforcing "disparate impact"-based rules under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against Louisiana state agencies.

"The Biden administration has used the Civil Rights Act in a way that it really hasn't been used a lot before," DeShazo noted about the application of the Civil Rights Act in environmental regulation. She said the Biden administration's strategy was a novel use of the Civil Rights Act, which has traditionally been applied to areas such as housing rather than environmental policy.

This approach has been central to the Biden Administration’s broader equity agenda, but it has been challenged in court, as demonstrated by this recent court decision in Louisiana. DeShazo offered additional insights into how this ruling not only affects environmental policies but also limits the use of the Civil Rights Act as a tool for promoting environmental justice.

“Federal judge blocks key element of Biden's environmental justice policy” was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence News on August 27, 2024.