The Justice Department announced it will stop investigating claims of systemic racism or sexism under a disparate-impact framework for Title VI enforcement, eliminating a decades-old method for alleging race- or sex-neutral policies have discriminatory outcomes. The change, unveiled by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, narrows the department’s civil-rights investigatory tools and alters how students, employees and families can raise complaints against colleges and K–12 systems. Colleges and legal advocates warned the rewrite will reduce the ability to challenge institutional practices that produce racial or gender gaps without proof of intentional bias. The department framed the change as a return to requiring proof of intentional discrimination; civil-rights groups like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund called the move “troubling,” noting it will raise the evidentiary bar for many systemic discrimination claims. Higher-education leaders should expect fewer disparate-impact investigations from the DOJ and more complaints to be decided on intent-based standards, shifting scrutiny toward demonstrable policies and direct evidence. The shift also leaves open questions about how the department will handle other campus civil-rights claims, including antisemitism and religious harassment, where the administration has taken a separate enforcement posture in recent months.