## Facts

- Alabama’s Department of Public Safety required driver’s license examinations to be administered only in English.
- The Department received federal financial assistance and was therefore subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- Title VI § 601 bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs.
- Title VI § 602 authorizes federal agencies to issue regulations to effectuate § 601.
- The Department of Justice issued regulations under § 602 barring funding recipients from using criteria or administrative methods that have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination (disparate impact).
- Martha Sandoval filed a class action seeking to enjoin Alabama’s English-only testing policy as violating the DOJ disparate-impact regulation, alleging it disproportionately harmed non-English speakers based on national origin.

## Issues

1. Whether Title VI authorizes private plaintiffs to sue to enforce disparate-impact regulations promulgated under § 602.
2. Whether a regulation issued under § 602 can supply a private cause of action absent statutory intent to create a private remedy.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the lower courts in a 5–4 decision authored by Justice Scalia.
- The Court held there is no private right of action to enforce disparate-impact regulations promulgated under Title VI § 602.
- The Court treated as settled that: (1) private plaintiffs may sue under § 601; (2) § 601 reaches only intentional discrimination; and (3) § 602 regulations may validly address disparate impact.
- The Court concluded that § 602’s text and structure show no congressional intent to create a private remedy and instead provide for administrative enforcement by federal agencies.
- The Court held that agency regulations may give content to statutory obligations but cannot create a private cause of action that Congress did not authorize.

## Legal Principles

- Private rights of action to enforce federal law must be created by Congress; courts look for statutory intent to create both a private right and a private remedy.
- Title VI § 601 is privately enforceable only for intentional discrimination.
- Title VI does not authorize private lawsuits to enforce disparate-impact regulations issued under § 602.
- A regulation cannot supply a private cause of action when the statute does not evidence congressional intent to allow private enforcement of the regulatory requirement.
- A detailed administrative enforcement scheme in the statute weighs against inferring a parallel private enforcement mechanism.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Title VI permits private suits for intentional discrimination under § 601 but does not permit private plaintiffs to enforce disparate-impact regulations issued under § 602, leaving enforcement of those regulations to federal agency processes.


Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275 (2001)