On April 23, 2025, President Trump announced a policy directive to eliminate the use of disparate impact liability “to the maximum degree possible” and directed federal agencies to deprioritize enforcement of laws and regulations that rely on the doctrine—undermining a cornerstone of civil rights protections that has expanded equal opportunity for decades. The executive order, which is aligned with policy recommendations from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a playbook the President denied being familiar with during his campaign, threatens to eliminate protections against discrimination that prevent people from fairly participating in America’s economy. Indeed, offices for civil rights and equal employment opportunity have been shuttered across the executive branch. The likely result is fewer people able to obtain living-wage jobs, fewer students able to use education as a tool to better their circumstances, fewer families able to find affordable homes. To help maintain disparate impact protections, it’s important to understand how this method of proving discrimination works and what we stand to lose as a country should it be further undermined.
