3. Central Personnel Agencies · Major
End or narrow the disparate impact doctrine in federal hiring
Printed page 72 3. Central Personnel Agencies
“This doctrine of disparate impact could be ended legislatively or at least narrowed through the regulatory process by a future Administration.”
What has happened
- Done
OPM struck every reference to the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures — the vehicle for disparate-impact review of federal hiring — from the civil service regulations, following a 2026-06-09 OLC opinion finding the Guidelines unlawful. This is the "narrowed through the regulatory process" outcome the Chapter asks for.
- Partially done
DOJ removed the disparate-impact provisions from its Title VI regulations — regulatory narrowing, but for federal funding recipients rather than federal hiring.
- Attempted
Executive Order 14281 declared a policy of eliminating disparate-impact liability "in all contexts to the maximum degree possible" and directed agencies to deprioritize enforcement and revise regulations.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- The Chapter offers two routes, “ended legislatively or at least narrowed through the regulatory process”. No statute has changed; the regulatory route is complete for federal hiring. Title VII’s statutory disparate-impact provision still binds federal agencies as employers, which is why this is done on the Mandate’s own terms, not “disparate impact is abolished”.
- The OLC opinion of 2026-06-09 cited in the OPM rule was not located on justice.gov (the OLC opinions index refused automated fetches); a lead for the human reviewer.
- Action
- repeal
- Object
- disparate impact doctrine
- ID
- 108