The Department of Justice and the Education Department will no longer rely on multiple federal civil rights guidance documents covering issues that include racial discrimination in student discipline and race-conscious admissions.
In a notice filed Thursday and set to be published in the Federal Register, the two departments jointly clarified that seven guidance documents they issued are not enforceable.
The guidance documents cover English learners, limited English proficient parents, COVID-related harassment, racial discrimination in student discipline and two files from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that race-conscious admissions programs at two universities violated federal discrimination laws.
People were interested in these podcasts
The agencies say they will not rely on these documents when enforcing multiple laws, including desegregation and discrimination statutes under the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The notice said the guidance does not create legal obligations beyond what the statutes, regulations and binding court precedent require.
“Some of the guidance documents assert that they do not have the force and effect of law, have no binding effect, and do not impose new legal requirements,” the notice reads. “The Departments’ guidance documents, including these guidance documents, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities beyond what is required by the terms of the applicable statutes, regulations, or binding judicial precedent.”
The agencies said they plan to revisit the documents in light of the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo to determine whether they match the “single, best meaning” of the laws they cover.
The ruling overturned Chevron deference, which required courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. Courts must now use their own judgment to decide what a law means.
All seven documents were issued before the ruling, the agencies noted.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.