The American Civil Rights Project

Last week, the ACR Project and Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute together filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, supporting Louisiana in its challenge to the EPA’s misapplication of Title VI and its regulations to impose disparate-impact analysis.* You can see the full brief, below.

The EPA argues that its Title VI regulation from the early 1970s is and always has been a catch-all, all-purpose, disparate-impact regulation. It argues that its mid-litigation dismissal of its investigations into whether a pair of Louisiana’s otherwise proper permitting decisions had such unjustified disparate impacts, and so allegedly vi0lated that regulation, moots Louisiana’s challenge to the EPA’s systematic national application of its re-interpretation of that regulation. It insists that any argument to the contrary comes fifty years too late and conflicts with Supreme Court precedent.

The EPA misstates the content of its regulation and the state of substantive law. The regulation’s text and modern constitutional law show that it is not and could not constitutionally be a catch-all, all-purpose, disparate-impact regulation. We argue that the district court should apply the canon of constitutional avoidance to refuse to read the regulation as the EPA prefers or, if it decides that it cannot, should hold that the regulation unconstitutionally exceeds the EPA’s power.

Among other things, we also argue that the district court must reject the strategic gamesmanship of the agency curtailing its investigation mid-litigation in an effort to avoid judicial scrutiny of its continuing, illegal “enforcement” of the regulation at issue. The EPA undertook that effort as part of the administration’s pattern of simultaneously pursuing an interpretation of its regulatory power at odds with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Title VI and dodging challenges to the legality of that “whole of government” effort.

* - ...to be precise, we filed a motion for for leave to file an amicus brief, with that amicus brief attached as an exhibit.

ACR Project and Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute Jointly File Amicus Brief Supporting Louisiana in Its Litigation with the EPA | American Civil Rights Project The ACR Project and Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute together filed […]

Today, we filed with the US Treasury Department a Title VI complaint, concerning Vermont’s recently announced launch of an intentionally racially discriminatory business coaching and training program.

According to VT Gov Phil Scott, the program, funded entirely with federal money, provides “outreach, support, training, technical assistance, networking, and resource navigation for BIPOC business owners and workers.” The state legislation authorizing that use of federal money expressly defines “BIPOC” to include -- only - those who are “Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color.”

The state thus intentionally, expressly excludes Vermonters from participating in and denies Vermonters the benefits of this federally-funded program based on their race, color, and national origin. Title VI has prohibited exactly that for almost 60 years.

This isn't a close call.

Our complaint asks the Treasury to enforce T-VI (by getting VT to fix the program or cutting off state funding to VT), to enforce ARPA (by recouping from VT the funds used advance the violation), and to assure VT's future compliance with long-settled law.

ACR Project Complaint Concerning Vermont's Violation of Title VI Through Discriminatory Business Coaching Program | American Civil Rights Project Today, the ACR Project filed with the U.S. Treasury Department a Title VI complaint, concerning Vermont's recently announced launch of an intentionally racially discriminatory business coaching and training program.

On behalf of the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation and individual San Francisco taxpayers, we notified the City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Unified School District, the UC System, and the State of California’s Health and Human Services Agency of our intent to sue to halt their illegally discriminatory guaranteed income programs.

This host of governmental agencies participates in (and uses state resources to advance) a set of four guaranteed income programs that violate the 14th Amendment and the California Constitution by disqualifying beneficiaries based on race, ethnicity, s*x, s*xuality, and gender. As the agencies are all federal funding recipients, the same programs’ racial discrimination also violates Title VI.

Notice of Intent to Sue CA Entities | American Civil Rights Project Today, the ACR Project notified San Francisco, the San Francisco USD, the UC System, and California's Health and Human Services Agency of our intent to sue over the unconstitutional guaranteed income programs in which they participate.