President Donald Trump signed yet another tremendous executive order Wednesday.
That executive order aims to end disparate impact liability in “various contexts to ensure equal treatment under the law.”
As the order defines it, disparate impact liability “is a legal theory holding that differences in outcomes among races, sexes, or similar groups indicate unlawful discrimination, even without discriminatory intent or policies.”
Rapid Response 47 posted footage from the Oval Office of Trump signing the order.
.@POTUS signs an executive order eliminating the use of the woke so-called “disparate-impact liability” to ensure equal treatment under the law. pic.twitter.com/rFJw0LYsrW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 23, 2025
According to Justia, the Supreme Court ruled in 1971 via Griggs v Duke Power Co. that even if a discriminatory intent does not exist in hiring someone, employers cannot use requirements in hiring that would inadvertently exclude certain groups.
Essentially, discrimination no longer required intent.
In other words, employers could still be seen as bigoted, sexist, and racist if hiring practices were well-meaning, but supposedly hurt certain groups.
Is it time for America to finally stop obsessing over race?
According to Trump’s executive order, “the theory violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment for all by requiring race-oriented policies and practices to rebalance outcomes along racial lines.”
The order goes further in what steps come next:
“The Order revokes presidential actions that approved of disparate-impact liability and sets in motion broader reform,” the White House added. “It directs all agencies to deprioritize enforcement of statutes and regulations that include disparate-impact liability.”
The order also “instructs the Attorney General to repeal or amend all Title VI (racial nondiscrimination) regulations that contemplate disparate-impact liability.”
The document meanwhile “directs the administration to assess all pending investigations, lawsuits, and consent judgements that rely on a theory of disparate-impact liability and take appropriate action.”
With the Trump administration going one way, and Griggs going another, does this mean the executive order has opened a possible court battle?
This is not the Warren court of the 1970s.
Although more conservative members of the Supreme Court like Justice Amy Coney Barrett have recently created disillusionment on the right, siding with more progressive justices on some issues related to executive power, it was only three years ago that the Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the most reviled and erroneous decision since Scott v. Sandford.
Let’s hope if things come to that with Griggs, the Supreme Court makes the right call.
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