The Tulane University Environmental Law Clinic, alongside the Center for Constitutional Rights, argued a civil rights lawsuit alleging environmental racism against St. James Parish.  

The trial occurred before the 5th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 7.  

Inclusive Louisiana, Mount Triumph Baptist Church and Rise St. James filed a lawsuit in March 2023 against the St. James Parish government. The case accuses St. James Parish of enforcing racially discriminatory land use policies that disproportionately locate site-polluting industries in predominantly Black communities. 

After months of preparation, including extensive moot court sessions throughout the spring and summer, Tulane Environmental Law Clinic students presented their client’s case before the 5th Circuit. Third-year student Jack Dean argued on behalf of Rise St. James, while the Center for Constitutional Rights represented Inclusive Louisiana and the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. 

“We would run through it multiple times with students in the clinic, clinical professors and other people in the environmental community to see what their thoughts were,” Dean said. “It was a tough multiple rounds of moot drafts, whittling away at it to make sure everything sounded right. It’s a humbling experience to say a script over and over. But we were preparing from spring to the day before court.” 

Former U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier dismissed the case last November due to a statute of limitations on personal injury claims. The environmental groups challenged the decision by appealing to the 5th Circuit.  

The 5th Circuit is currently reviewing whether the plaintiffs in the civil rights lawsuit have the standing to bring their claims and whether their case was filed within the statute of limitations. 

“If the 5th Circuit rules favorably, then we will go back to the district court and continue on the path of litigation there. If the 5th Circuit rules unfavorably, we’ll reconvene,” Dean said. 

The plaintiffs reside in a highly industrialized section of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, known as the Chemical Corridor. This area is often referred to as “Cancer Alley,” as it is known for its concentration of industrial plants releasing toxic chemicals, contributing to some of the highest cancer risk rates in Louisiana. 

Since the 1960s, the St. James Parish government has played a central role in determining whether industrial facilities are approved for construction, with the parish council deciding on a case-by-case basis. For decades, these decisions were made without a formal written plan, but in 2014, the parish codified its long-standing practices into an official land-use plan. According to the plaintiffs, this plan perpetuated a pattern of discrimination, as industrial sites were predominantly placed near majority-Black communities and on land containing burial sites of their ancestors, while majority-white communities were spared. 

“The case itself is seeking a moratorium on the further siting of industrial facilities in St James Parish. So essentially asking the parish government to cease further construction that would disproportionately impact low-income Black communities in St James Parish,” Dean said. 

The defendants argue that the starting point for any statute of limitations should be 2014, when the plan was devised.  

The 2014 plan was replaced in 2018 with a revised version, removing some explicitly unequal provisions, such as buffer zones protecting Catholic but not Baptist churches. The plaintiffs claim that both plans serve as evidence of an ongoing discriminatory practice rather than distinct starting points for legal claims. 

The plaintiffs filed seven claims against St. James Parish, challenging the local government’s long history of directing industrial development to predominantly Black communities. They argue that this practice perpetuates racial inequities rooted in the region’s history of slavery. The claims are based on the 13th and 14th Amendments, including allegations of intentional discrimination and residents’ exposure to harmful pollutants, which they argue violates their right to bodily integrity. The land use plan is cited as an example of this broader pattern. 

In addition, a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1982, a U.S. code protecting property rights, centers on the land use plan’s restrictions on property subdivision, which the plaintiffs allege disproportionately affect Black residents, violating their right to dispose of property equally. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act is cited in two claims: one alleging discrimination against Black Baptist churches, which were left unprotected in the land use plan, while Catholic and predominantly white churches were given buffer zones, and another claim addressing the substantial burden placed on descendants of enslaved individuals. The plaintiffs claim that industrial developments on sites containing unmarked burial grounds prevent descendants from preserving and honoring these graves, violating their religious and cultural practices. 

Over time, slave plantations were demolished, and the land was subdivided and sold to industrial companies, including chemical and steel manufacturers. Many of these industrial developments have been constructed directly on or near the burial sites of slaves, some of which were marked, while others were unmarked but known or very likely to exist. The plaintiffs allege that this has led to the destruction or ongoing threat to these ancestral graves. 

“Part of the relief is protecting our clients right to access, visit and care for these ancestral burial sites in perpetuity, because these are their relatives that are buried here,” Dean said. 

The lawsuit further asserts a claim under the Louisiana Constitution that protects cultural heritage. The plaintiffs argue that the destruction of gravesites and communities in Black neighborhoods amounts to an irreparable loss of cultural heritage.  

They also highlight the parish’s inconsistent treatment of white and Black communities, noting that white communities were even protected from relatively benign projects, like solar farms, on grounds that were never applied to industrial projects in Black neighborhoods. 

Through these claims, the plaintiffs aim to demonstrate that the parish’s actions represent deliberate and systemic discrimination, perpetuating harm to Black communities while prioritizing the protection of white residents. 

“What it means is that these residents keep on fighting,” Dean said. “The environmental clinic keeps on advocating for these groups, and the very immediate outcome outside of the law is that this sheds more light on the need for a moratorium.”