To truly kill quotas, Team Trump must ax these racial lawsuits

The Trump administration’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion rules and programs has been remarkably successful — and this week, his Justice Department took it to the next level.Corporations, colleges and universities, state and federal agencies and others have revised or eliminated these polarizing, unlawful policies thanks to President Trump’s executive orders.More in-depth rules are likely on the way.But another area of law needs targeting just as robustly: disparate-impact liability.It isn’t as widely known as DEI, but disparate-impact liability has had catastrophic effects on American life and law.This gravely flawed legal doctrine has allowed advocacy groups and bureaucrats to impose race-based policies on our public and private lives without any evidence of actual racial discrimination.It’s unconstitutional and unfair.Here’s an example of how this legal doctrine works in the real world.The fire department of Durham, NC, made all applicants take a written exam to determine their ability to comprehend entry-level firefighting material.But activists claimed the exam had a “disparate impact” on African American test takers, because black applicants on average scored lower on the test than members of other racial groups.The Biden administration sued Durham — claiming that while the test was race-neutral, it didn’t create the right racial mix for new firefighters.City leaders caved.

They agreed to abandon the test, to retroactively hire 16 black applicants and to pay $980,000 in damages to others.On Wednesday, the Justice Department dismissed that case, along with three others the Biden administration had filed against police and fire departments in Maryland, Georgia and Indiana — freeing Durham and other municipalities to reinstate race-neutral merit requirements.New York City has seen similar attacks on merit.When some 5,000 black and Hispanic applicants flunked a teacher’s certification exam that most white and Asian test takers ...