On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy.” While the title sounds just, the order seeks to roll back critical civil rights protections that have allowed American workers to challenge discrimination for over 50 years. Specifically, the order directs federal agencies to abandon enforcement of disparate-impact claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace.
Disparate-impact claims permit employees to challenge workplace policies that are facially neutral, like written tests, physical standards, and hiring procedures, but have a marked adverse impact on a protected class. Disparate-impact discrimination protections are based on the Supreme Court’s landmark 1971 decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Company, where the Court stated that discriminatory conduct can be subtle and indirect. Congress has reinforced this principle by explicitly including disparate impact language in amendments to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other federal anti-discrimination statutes.
Despite the fact that federal statutes explicitly provide for disparate impact claims and despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that such claims are permitted for over fifty years, Trump’s executive order claims that disparate-impact liability is unconstitutional and is not permitted. The Constitution is clear that Congress creates the laws and the Courts interpret them. Trump’s executive order is invalid to the extent it attempts to usurp these roles of the other branches of government.