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Republicans Trying to Eliminate Major Rule Making It Easier to Get Away With Discrimination
The Trump administration, which has already rolled back Justice Department oversight of police departments and Education Department protections for transgender students, is targeting the principle of disparate impact in its latest effort to undermine civil rights enforcement. Let's explain what that means.
.... the administration intends to roll back regulations that bar discrimination on the basis of “disparate impact.” In particular, Trump officials have their eyes on regulations that prevent discrimination in housing. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has already pulled back on investigations into such matters.
Disparate-impact regulations prohibit actions that have the effect of discriminating against particular groups, not just those that are intended to do so. Disparate-impact regulations make it possible to attack prejudice on a systemic scale rather than addressing individual acts alone.
...the roll back such regulations across the federal government could have a profound effect on those groups and individuals historically denied opportunities simply because of their race or background.
So basically, if there's an action that harms one group specifically, even if not intentional, we have rules to say that must be stopped. Trump's cronies want to make changes that would be a major shift in the way the executive branch has enforced civil rights laws for the past few decades.
... the regulations prohibit behavior that would discriminate if there are other ways to achieve the desired objective, or if there’s no valid interest being pursued. When the federal government alleges discrimination on the basis of disparate impact, such as in mortgage lending or homeowner’s insurance, it performs a regression analysis to prove that, all other things being equal, discrimination is at play.
The Supreme Court ultimately issued a 5–4 ruling.... upholding disparate-impact discrimination regulations under the Fair Housing Act, but the opinion was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He has since been replaced.... Opponents of disparate-impact rules might prevail, given a second day in a Trumpified high court. Without such regulations, illegal discrimination on a grand scale....
Republicans say that the only true evil that needs to be rooted out under the law is intentional discrimination. If laws and policies cause discrimination "by accident" then oh well they say. They don't care. This isn't surprising. This hits particularly hard in the housing sector.
Conservatives have long sought to eliminate disparate-impact regulations. In Trump, a real-estate baron whose company was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to black people, they finally found an eager champion.
“The Trump administration has been systematically undermining civil rights and efforts to address racial discrimination,” said Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the Justice Department’s civil-rights division under Obama. “Disparate-impact liability can uncover disguised discriminatory intent and/or unconscious prejudices. And unconscious bias can have the same effect as overt bias: It can undermine equal opportunity.”
The attack on disparate impact is the latest in a series of Trump administration assaults on civil rights. No matter how far the administration attempts to cut protections, discrimination continues to be a real problem in America. The federal government, charged with protecting civil rights, should be doing more, not less to advance equality.
Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/disparate-impact/579466/