On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” (“the EO”).
The EO, by its own terms, seeks to “to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible” through several avenues, including eliminating enforcement at the federal level and advocating for preemption at the state level.
Disparate-impact liability is a legal theory by which facially neutral policies or practices may nonetheless violate antidiscrimination laws if they disproportionately affect members of protected classes. Disparate impact claims are typically raised in the context of reductions-in-force and challenges to hiring criteria.
Recognized initially by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1971 case Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971), disparate-impact liability was later codified into Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by Congress in 1991. Although disparate-impact liability usually centers on federal law and authorities, many states have also codified versions of disparate-impact liability throughout state statutes and regulations.
The EO represents a significant shift in federal enforcement priorities, directing all federal agencies to “deprioritize enforcement of all statutes and regulations” that include disparate-impact liability. For employers, this most acutely signals that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), among other federal agencies, will no longer...
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