REALIZING THE PROMISE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CIVIL RIGHTS: THE RENEWED EFFORT TO ENFORCE TITLE VI OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: LoPresti, Tony
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8368
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 757-819
• 关键词: justice; equity; IMPACT; state

摘要

The environmental justice movement has long pursued a viable mechanism for federal enforcement of environmental civil rights. No legal tool has inspired such high hopes-and such deep disappointment-as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Without a private right of action to enforce Title VI, advocates have focused on filing administrative complaints with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But, after twenty years of active enforcement and 247 complaints, the EPA has yet to issue a single violation. Complaints alleging severe and discriminatog health impacts routinely languish at EPA's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for years without response, in clear violation of the Agency's own regulations. In spite of EPA's dismal record, advocates have found cause for optimism in a Ninth Circuit decision chastising the EPA for its pattern of delay, a scathing audit of the OCR, and some encouraging steps by former Administrator Lisa Jackson. While these recent developments have kept advocates invested in Title VI, little has been done to address the structural barriers that have stymied effective enforcement. This Article discusses these structural barriers in the context of three controversial complaints, and proposes solutions that the EPA can put into place. The solutions-creating effective remedies, building accountability into the OCR's enforcement system, and easing the tension between federal authoriy and state autonomy-form the backdrop of any effort to improve enforcement of environmental civil rights. The EPA's ability to create a legitimate Title VI program will be pivotal to the fiture of environmental justice. And, in an administrative state that allocates hundreds of billions in federal assistance each year, Title VI may be the most critical battleground in defining the ongoing legacy of the civil rights movement.