Rescinding Portions of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Title VI Regulations To Conform More Closely With the Statutory Text and To Implement Executive Order 14281

Key claim: The National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities is removing disparate-impact liability from its Title VI civil-rights rules, so arts and humanities programs that receive its federal funds can be found in violation only for intentional discrimination, not for policies that have unequal racial effects.

Abstract

(Rule · National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities) This rule amends the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities’ (the Foundation) regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) to eliminate disparate-impact liability. These amendments align the conduct prohibited by the Foundation’s regulations with Title VI text, avoid constitutional concerns, reduce compliance costs, and serve the public interest. In addition, these revisions are consistent with Executive Order 14281.

Why this matters

The NFAH rule is part of a coordinated, government-wide rollback of disparate-impact enforcement under Title VI, meaning arts and humanities grantees can no longer be held accountable for facially neutral policies that produce racially unequal outcomes. For affected communities, recourse now requires proving intentional discrimination — a substantially higher evidentiary bar — and the cumulative effect across agencies signals a broader narrowing of federal civil-rights liability.

Source

Link