The U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday it would repeal part of its longstanding civil rights regulations that prohibit actions that have unintended “disparate” impacts.
In April 2025, President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies not to enforce laws prohibiting policies and practices that have discriminatory, often unintentional, effects.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department is clarifying that its regulations “only prohibit intentional discrimination, not conduct or activities that have disparate impact,” adding that the Department of Transportation will not act on disparate impact liability.
Curbing so-called disparate impact liability, which is common in employment-related cases, would eliminate a tool the government has used for decades to police discrimination in housing, education, lending and other areas.
Federal discrimination laws date back to the Civil War
On June 9, the Justice Department said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s legal guidance aimed at preventing disparate impacts on protected groups of workers was misguided because it focused only on outcomes, without regard to employer intentions.
Numerous federal laws, some dating to the years after the Civil War, prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, religion and other protected characteristics. Courts have long viewed discrimination as an intentional act, but that began to change after the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in a 1971 case that otherwise neutral employment practices may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if they have a disproportionate impact on a protected group and are not demonstrably related to job performance.
Examples of policies that may have a disparate impact include health requirements that are more difficult to meet for women or people with disabilities, and a requirement that new hires be recent college graduates, which excludes many older applicants.
Trump and other critics of disparate impact liability say the threat of lawsuits prevents companies from making decisions based on merit and skills, and that legal theory incorrectly assumes that illegal discrimination occurs when outcomes differ between groups.
photo: Transport Secretary Sean Duffy speaks at a press conference at the Department for Transport in December 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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