AFPI Highlights Trump Administration’s Efforts to Restore Equal Treatment Under the Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) today released a new Expert Insight highlighting the Trump Administration’s efforts to restore equal treatment under the law by eliminating the use of disparate impact doctrine. These actions represent major progress toward a simple principle: Americans should be treated equally under the law.

Eliminating disparate impact doctrine will allow employers, schools, and institutions to uphold legitimate, merit-based standards without being forced to engineer equal outcomes.

The new Expert Insight highlights recent actions by the Trump Administration, including the Department of Justice’s conclusion that existing EEOC interpretations of disparate impact liability under Title VII are unconstitutional and the Department of Education’s rescission of disparate impact provisions from its Title VI regulations.

“Under disparate impact doctrine, neutral policies—i.e., treating people equally—can be labeled as ‘discriminatory’ when they produce group outcome differences (aka: "disparities"). The doctrine is facial absurd and irreconcilable with American values,” said AFPI’s Director of Higher Education Policy, Christopher Schorr, Ph.D. “It is also impractical, given that no natural law dictates the random distribution of individual interests and aptitudes across whichever demographic characteristics happen to be of interest to courts, regulators, or lawmakers. The Trump Administration should be commended for its efforts to eliminate disparate impact doctrine in federal civil law.”

Read the full Expert Insight, Restoring Equal Treatment Under the Law: Ending Disparate Impact Doctrine here.