More Harm From “Disparate Impact” Regulations
19th September 2013
Earlier, we wrote about the Obama administration’s attempt to inject a race-conscious “disparate impact” provision into colorblind anti-discrimination laws like the Fair Housing Act, and how that could lead to risky, race-conscious lending, bad loans, and future bank failures, mortgage meltdowns, and financial crises. Now, Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder highlights an additional area where disparate-impact rules may be having a negative impact: higher education. (“Disparate impact” is a term in anti-discrimination law for when a neutral policy happens to affect minorities more than whites. One example is a standardized test that whites pass at a higher rate than some minority group, even though test scores are calculated the same way for members of all races. Some civil-rights laws contain language authorizing “disparate-impact” claims, but others do not, and are phrased in colorblind terms.)