Disparate Impact Theory: Biden Administration HUD Weaponized Civil Rights Law

The Biden administration’s many failures are a matter of public record. Less well known is how it weaponized civil rights law against the American people. While President Trump has undone the damage from Biden’s policies in countless areas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is defanging the pernicious legal doctrine that fueled Biden’s government weaponization: disparate-impact theory. HUD has proposed a rule to end the agency’s use of disparate-impact theory in fair housing and related civil rights enforcement.

Disparate-impact theory holds that a neutral policy or practice is unlawfully discriminatory if it has an unequal effect on different demographic groups, even absent evidence of discriminatory intent. It rests on the false assumption that racial disparities are the result of the contested policy rather than a reflection of unrelated realities. Justice Clarence Thomas observed, “Disparate-impact doctrine defies not only the statutory text, but reality itself.”

About the Author

Scott Turner

Scott Turner is the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

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The Biden administration’s many failures are a matter of public record. Less well known is how it weaponized civil rights law against the American people. While President Trump has undone the damage from Biden’s policies in countless areas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is defanging the pernicious legal doctrine that fueled Biden’s government weaponization: disparate-impact theory. HUD has proposed a rule to end the agency’s use of disparate-impact theory in fair housing and related civil rights enforcement.

Disparate-impact theory holds that a neutral policy or practice is unlawfully discriminatory if it has an unequal effect on different demographic groups, even absent evidence of discriminatory intent. It rests on the false assumption that racial disparities are the result of the contested policy rather than a reflection of unrelated realities. Justice Clarence Thomas observed, “Disparate-impact doctrine defies not only the statutory text, but reality itself.”