Overview
- The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a 25-page opinion to the EEOC that concludes the agency's Title VII disparate-impact guidelines are unconstitutional because they pressured employers to consider race to avoid liability.
- The opinion, published Tuesday, June 9, 2026, narrows disparate-impact claims by requiring plaintiffs to prove the specific practice caused the disparity and to identify an equally effective, less-discriminatory alternative.
- OLC also says common hiring tools such as aptitude tests, background checks, degree requirements and SAT scores are presumptively job-related so long as they reasonably relate to performance, lowering the chance those tools will trigger liability.
- The opinion is an executive-branch legal view not binding on courts, but it already shapes agency posture, will likely make EEOC enforcement of disparate-impact claims harder, and is expected to prompt new litigation that could reach the federal appeals courts or the Supreme Court.
- Reactions split along ideological lines: the EEOC and conservatives praised the clarity for employers, while civil-rights groups and former DOJ officials warned the change will make it much harder for workers to challenge neutral practices that produce unequal outcomes and could increase unchecked discrimination.