Trump signs executive order to eliminate disparate impact in education and restore meritocracy

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday titled, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, which eliminates the use of disparate-impact liability in some contexts and restores "the true promise of the Civil Rights Movement."

The order stated, "A bedrock principle of the United States is that all citizens are treated equally under the law. This principle guarantees equality of opportunity, not equal outcomes. It promises that people are treated as individuals, not components of a particular race or group. It encourages meritocracy and a colorblind society, not race- or sex-based favoritism. Adherence to this principle is essential to creating opportunity, encouraging achievement, and sustaining the American Dream."

A fact sheet from the White House stated that "Disparate-impact liability is a legal theory holding that differences in outcomes among races, sexes, or similar groups indicate unlawful discrimination," which "violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment for all by requiring race-oriented policies and practices to rebalance outcomes along racial lines."

Agencies have been directed under the executive order to "deprioritize enforcement of statutes and regulations that include disparate-impact liability," and the Attorney General has been ordered to repeal or amend all Title VI regulations that "contemplate disparate-impact liability."

The administration will also assess all pending lawsuits, investigations, and other things that "rely on a theory of disparate-impact liability, and take appropriate action." The White House said that disparate-impact liability "undermines civil-rights laws," blocks businesses from making merit-based hiring decisions, and hurts job seekers. 

Disparate impact liability was codified in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It holds agencies accountable for practices that, even when there is no intent to, have a discriminatory effect on protected groups. 

A separate order was signed by by Trump the same day, titled "Reinstating Common Sense School Discipline Policies, which stated that in 2014, under the Obama Administration, "the Department of Education and the Department of Justice explained that schools could be found to violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — and therefore could lose Federal funding — if their disciplinary decisions ran afoul of a newly imposed disparate-impact framework under which race-neutral disciplinary policies, applied in an even-handed manner, may be improper if members of any racial groups are suspended, expelled, or referred to law enforcement at higher rates than others."

This action "harmed students and schools," the executive order stated, with the Federal Commission on School Safety noting in a 2018 report that there was evidence "schools ignored or covered up — rather than disciplined — student misconduct in order to avoid any purported racial disparity in discipline numbers that might catch the eye of the federal government."

"As a result, students who should have been suspended or expelled for dangerous behavior remained in the classroom, making all students less safe." 

The order directs the Secretary of Education to issue new guidance to local and state agencies "regarding school discipline and their obligations not to engage in racial discrimination under Title VI in all contexts, including school discipline."

A North Carolina teacher said during the signing, "This has been an 8-year journey for me, to raise awareness to the violence that's in public schools." She said that there was three students who should be "with us today," citing the deaths of Austin Metcalf, Serenity Baker, and Nahzir Taylor.