Donald Trump Signs Executive Order To Repeal Disparate Impact Liability

Hate to rain on your parade but disparate impact was codified into law by George HW Bush and his congress in the 1991 Civil Rights Act.

It’ll take the courts or congress to really undo it. But Trump can always just refuse to enforce the law. https://t.co/UWlGoN7ve6 pic.twitter.com/52lRRbeSWH

— Dissident Soaps (@DissidentSoaps) April 24, 2025

It’s hard to exaggerate the harm done to the American Experiment by the disparate impact doctrine. Its logic was empirically indefensible. Its implementation was mindless. Overturning it could be one of the most important accomplishments of the second Trump term. https://t.co/0GNpbGTL84

— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) April 24, 2025

This should be MOMENTOUS. “Disparate Impact Theory” is one of the worst racial frauds going. If America’s pets don’t score as well on a test or are less likely that whites to meet standards, tests and standards are “racist.” https://t.co/qnc4vcCitw

— Jared Taylor (@RealJarTaylor) April 23, 2025

.@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

My thoughts on this:

1. As Dissident Soaps points out here, disparate impact was codified into federal law in the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. The Supreme Court also upheld the constitutionality of disparate impact in the Griggs v. Duke Power Co. decision in 1971. Needless to say, challenging disparate impact is another uphill battle like birthright citizenship.

2. It is important to highlight the fact that various innovations of the Trump era – mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, ending affirmative action, challenging disparate impact, dismantling DEI and refusing to pass new voting rights and federal civil rights legislation – were a bipartisan consensus between the elites of both parties until basically yesterday. The fact that all of this is being challenged now and is up for debate is a symptom of the weakening of the taboo on racism.

3. Chris Rufo has long said that rolling back disparate impact and overturning Griggs was the next step forward after the Supreme Court decision that ended affirmative action.

4. All that Donald Trump is doing here is sending up another executive order to start a legal battle which Rufo & Co. hope to win at the Supreme Court.

5. Obviously, I have major differences with Rufo, but rolling back institutional anti-Whiteism in government, universities and in the corporate world is a good thing. Yes, it sucks that we have to start here because our enemies ran up the score for decades with no resistance, but we have to win battles like this one, which puts the burden of proof on Whites, before we can move forward.

The Hill:

“President Trump has taken steps to nullify a key component to the Civil Rights Act as he works to remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies from the federal government. 

One of the executive orders issued Wednesday, dubbed Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, would dismantle disparate impact liability — a legal theory codified in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that holds agencies accountable for practices that have an outsized discriminatory effect on protected groups, even when there is no intent to discriminate. 

The theory allows a plaintiff to sue without fulfilling the burden of demonstrating intentional bias by pointing to practices that disproportionately affect protected groups. Some of these practices include educational requirements, criminal history policies and even physical fitness. …”

To be crystal clear, I am not expecting a big victory here.

This issue wasn’t even on the table of political contention until the Joe Biden era.