Halliday Shares Thoughts on Recent Louisiana Civil Rights Ruling

Environmental partner Stacey Halliday was featured in the Inside EPA article, “Louisiana Ruling Will Drive States To Fight EPA Rights Probes, Lawyers Say.” The article discusses a federal judge in Louisiana’s recent decision to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from enforcing disparate-impact-based requirements — which refer to unintentional discrimination — against the state or any state agency in civil rights cases under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Halliday, a former Special Counsel in the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, told Inside EPA that the EPA and DOJ “face the likelihood that other states will be empowered to act similarly, potentially making it much more difficult for EPA to advance environmental justice via Title VI in states that are likely to oppose voluntary agreements.” She added that while the judge’s ruling only grants a preliminary injunction barring the agencies from enforcing Title VI, it “previews” how the judge “may rule on the merits.”

Halliday noted that it is “worth flagging” that Title VI is just one of the agencies’ “options for advancing environmental justice at both the agency and administration level.”

Read the full article (subscription required).