{"id":2613241,"date":"2026-06-11T05:08:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-targets-disparate-impact-hiring-practices-at-odds-with-constitution\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T05:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:14:46","slug":"doj-targets-disparate-impact-hiring-practices-at-odds-with-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-targets-disparate-impact-hiring-practices-at-odds-with-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ targets disparate impact hiring practices at odds with Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-targets-disparate-impact-hiring-practices-at-odds-with-constitution%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2613241&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The U.S.Department of Justice\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel said the Equal Employment Chance Commission\u2019s (EEOC) \u201cdisparate impact\u201d framework is unconstitutional. That doctrine treats employment practices as potentially unlawful under Title VII when they lead to different outcomes for different races, even if the policies are not intended to discriminate.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ argued that this approach effectively pressures employers into \u201crace-based decisionmaking,\u201d which violates the Constitution by coercing consideration of race in employment decisions.The opinion relied heavily on the Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision in *Louisiana v. Callais* (which limited how race must be proven in certain Voting Rights Act claims) and discussed *Ricci v. DeStefano*, were the Court found that discarding promotion test results to avoid Title VII exposure was itself unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives praised the DOJ ruling as a step toward eliminating disparate impact in practice. They said the EEOC had already faced challenges to its internal guidance on disparate impact investigations, and noted that while DOJ legal opinions aren\u2019t as binding as Supreme Court rulings, the guidance could help trigger litigation that reaches the Supreme Court. Observers also suggested the DOJ is signaling to the Court-given the Court\u2019s broader trend of narrowing race-conscious policies-that disparate impact should be reconsidered and potentially ruled unconstitutional, leaving employers with more room to use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-racial-anxiety-conquered-an-orchestra-and-crushed-a-career\/\" title=\"How Racial Anxiety Conquered an Orchestra and Crushed a Career\">merit-based hiring<\/a> and promotion methods without statistical-outcome pressure.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/department-of-justice\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"438\">Department of Justice<\/a> declared this week that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission\u2019s \u201cdisparate impact\u201d policies are unconstitutional, tossing aside a rule, long criticized by conservatives, that saw racial discrimination whenever a policy resulted in outcomes that differed among people of different races \u2014 regardless of whether the policy had anything to do with race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a 25-page <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/olc\/media\/1444871\/dl?utm_medium=email&#038;utm_source=govdelivery\">opinion<\/a> from the DOJ\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel on Tuesday, the DOJ found that the EEOC\u2019s policies, which made employers susceptible to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/title-vii\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"3068\">Title VII<\/a> racial discrimination lawsuits if hiring or promotion outcomes are different for different races, are unconstitutional. The opinion found that EEOC policies disregarded the intention behind employers\u2019 hiring practices, instead pressuring them into engaging in \u201crace-based decisionmaking,\u201d in violation of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4603886\/vance-boelter-death-penalty-minnesota\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Prosecutors won\u2019t seek death penalty in Minnesota Democrat\u2019s assassination<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4601747\/dc-bar-official-targeted-ed-martin-complaint-partisan-posts\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>DC Bar official who targeted Ed Martin hit with complaint after partisan posts<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4600604\/judicial-turf-war-doj-transgender-drugs-surgeries-investigations\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Judicial turf war ignites over DOJ investigations into transgender drugs and surgeries for children<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust as it is unconstitutional for the federal government to \u2018force States to engage in the very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/student-group-sues-yale-for-discrimination-revives-trump-era-case\/\" title=\"Student Group Sues Yale for Discrimination, Revives Trump-Era ...\">race-based discrimination<\/a> that the Constitution forbids,\u2019 so too it is unconstitutional for the federal government to coerce employers to adopt employment policies or make employment decisions motivated by race,\u201d the OLC opinion said. \u201cDisparate impact liability does not just raise constitutional doubt in occasional cases; unless narrowly circumscribed, it structurally compels the very racial discrimination that the Constitution forbids.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conservatives celebrated the OLC opinion as a significant step toward ending what they see as a destructive legal doctrine that ultimately required the type of racial discrimination it purported to ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere is no point in nibbling around the edges or changing statutes,\u201d Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, posted on X. \u201cThe entire concept of disparate impact is unconstitutional and must be repudiated root and branch.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.<\/p>\n<p>There is no point in nibbling around the edges or changing statutes.<\/p>\n<p>The entire concept of disparate impact is unconstitutional and must be repudiated root and branch. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/C4jx0SZjnP\">https:\/\/t.co\/C4jx0SZjnP<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Jeremy Carl (@realJeremyCarl) <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/realJeremyCarl\/status\/2064390392792137931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DOJ\u2019s opinion rested heavily on the Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling in <em>Louisiana v. Callais<\/em>, which raised the bar for proving racial gerrymandering claims. In <em>Callais<\/em>, which the DOJ cited several times throughout its opinion, the justices found that states can draw congressional maps without the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >race-based considerations courts long insisted<\/a> were necessary under the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The OLC opinion also highlighted a 2009 Supreme Court case, <em>Ricci v. DeStefano<\/em>, in which the New Haven Fire Department in Connecticut tossed out the results of a test it used to determine promotions over fear of a Title VII lawsuit, after one Hispanic and 19 white firefighters passed the test, while none of the black firefighters did. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/amy-coney-barretts-1st-opinion-for-scotus-gets-no-respect-from-leading-liberal-justice\/\" title=\"Amy Coney Barrett\u2019s 1st ... For SCOTUS Gets No \u2018Respect\u2019 From Leading Liberal Justice\">high court ruled<\/a> the decision to toss the test results was itself a Title VII violation, siding with the group of firefighters who sued the department. The Supreme Court\u2019s 2009 ruling only dealt with the specific dispute with the firefighters, while Tuesday\u2019s OLC opinion went further to address the legality of the EEOC\u2019s disparate impact policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in the 2009 Supreme Court case, celebrated the DOJ\u2019s Tuesday opinion as a significant win for upholding merit-based hiring practices.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap\" style=\"min-height:5px;\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" style=\"display:none;\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor years, politicians in robes and activists on the left have hidden behind disparate-impact theory, using allegations of statistical disparities as cover for discrimination against innocent Americans who did nothing wrong except succeed on merit,\u201d Ricci said in a statement to the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cAmerica is better than that. We know achievement is not dictated by race, ethnicity, or any other immutable characteristic. Success is earned through hard work, merit, knowledge, skill, and determination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEqual opportunity does not guarantee equal outcomes \u2014 and it was never intended to. A free and fair society judges people by their abilities and effort, not by whether statistical results satisfy political expectations,\u201d Ricci added. \u201cWhile previous administrations spoke about equal opportunity, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has taken action \u2014 putting President Trump\u2019s vision into practice and reaffirming the principle that every American deserves to be judged as an individual, not as a member of a demographic group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The OLC opinion also garnered praise in conservative legal circles. Abhishek Kambli, a former DOJ attorney who <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4559200\/lawyer-handling-key-trump-litigation-depart-doj\/\">recently left the department<\/a>, praised it as a major step in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEEOC was already ending its reliance well before this,\u201d Kambli said. \u201cIn fact, they got sued (and prevailed) on a lawsuit (Cross v. EEOC) challenging an internal memo that directed closure of disparate impact investigations.\u00a0But it is always a major positive for OLC to weigh in as strongly as they have here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the opinion from the DOJ is not as binding as a Supreme Court ruling, it could touch off a process that leads to the high court taking up a case that directly challenges disparate impact. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/s-d-gov-noem-pro-life-americans-are-not-anti-woman\/\" title=\"S.D. Gov. Noem: Pro-life Americans are not anti-woman\">conservative-majority court<\/a> has in recent years taken aim at policies requiring racial considerations in other contexts, such as college admissions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will\u00a0Hild, executive director of the conservative consumer watchdog Consumers\u2019 Research, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> he believes the OLC opinion is designed to put in motion a bid to \u201cdestroy the legal doctrine of disparate impact entirely,\u201d ending at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think what they want is either an appellate court or ultimately Supreme Court case asserting that finally that disparate impact is unconstitutional,\u201d Hild said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4595153\/supreme-court-23-opinions-left-final-weeks-of-term\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4595153\/supreme-court-23-opinions-left-final-weeks-of-term\/\">SUPREME COURT SAVES 23 OPINIONS FOR RELEASE IN FINAL WEEKS OF TERM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Supreme Court\u2019s trend of striking down policies that favor equal racial outcomes, rather than equal opportunity, include the <em>Callais<\/em> decision in April and the 2023 ruling in <em>Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard<\/em>, which struck down affirmative action for school admissions as unconstitutional. Hild noted it is \u201cfrankly hard to square more recent Supreme Court cases\u201d with the EEOC policy of disparate impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DOJ\u2019s OLC opinion is attempting to signal to the Supreme Court that the department wants the justices to take up a case that would take a fresh look at disparate impact \u201cbased on recent precedent,\u201d and hopefully set a lasting standard that outlaws the policy, Hild said. In the interim, Hild believes the OLC opinion tells employers that they are not beholden to disparate impact hiring standards, still offering a significant blow to the long-standing EEOC policy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DOJ says EEOC \u201cdisparate impact\u201d policies are unconstitutional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4059,"featured_media":2613242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/doj-eeoc-disparate-impact.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[43482,54033,7076,50095],"class_list":["post-2613241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-constitutional-law","tag-disparate-impact","tag-doj","tag-hiring-practices"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/doj-eeoc-disparate-impact.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4059"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2613241"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2613245,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613241\/revisions\/2613245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2613242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}