U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters
BATON ROUGE – A federal judge has permanently barred the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department from enforcing certain Title VI disparate impact requirements against Louisiana entities.
U.S. District Judge James David Cain Jr. of the Western District of Louisiana issued the injunction Tuesday in the state’s lawsuit against the agencies. The ruling extends to entities throughout Louisiana, not just state government agencies.
The decision limits a federal civil rights tool used to examine whether environmental permitting and other government actions disproportionately harm minority communities.
The injunction prohibits the EPA and DOJ from enforcing Title VI disparate impact requirements found in EPA and DOJ regulations against any Louisiana entity. It also bars the agencies from conditioning past, current or future federal financial assistance on compliance with those requirements.
The blocked regulations include provisions that prohibit federally funded recipients from using criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of subjecting people to discrimination based on race, color or national origin, even without proof of intentional discrimination.
The Justice Department says it is complying with the order and, unless later litigation changes it, will not impose or enforce those disparate impact requirements in Louisiana.
Murrill
State Attorney General Liz Murrill said the ruling closed a chapter in the state’s fight over what Louisiana officials had characterized as unlawful federal overreach.
“President Biden’s EPA and DOJ threatened our state over made-up violations of federal regulations that were actually contrary to federal law,” Murrill said. “Louisiana fought back and won. Glad to see this chapter is closed.”
The state’s challenge was initially filed in 2023, when Gov. Jeff Landry was attorney general. Louisiana argued Title VI itself reaches intentional discrimination, not policies or practices with unintended discriminatory effects. A prior Cain ruling had temporarily blocked the agencies’ enforcement while the case proceeded.
The injunction does not invalidate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Louisiana recipients of DOJ funding remain subject to the statute’s ban on intentional discrimination, other applicable nondiscrimination rules and grant conditions, the Justice Department says.
The case has carried particular implications for environmental enforcement in Louisiana’s industrial corridor along the Mississippi River, where advocates have alleged that pollution from petrochemical facilities has imposed disproportionate health risks on predominantly Black communities. The EPA had sought to use Title VI more aggressively in environmental-justice investigations during the Biden administration.
The earlier permanent injunction issued by Cain in August 2024 applied statewide and was appealable to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
