Louisiana ‘Cancer Alley’ Civil Rights Claims Scrapped by Judge

A federal district judge quashed a lawsuit Thursday that alleged Louisiana officials were harming Black residents by loading their neighborhoods with petrochemical facilities.

Judge Carl J. Barbier at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana denied defendant St. James Parish’s bid to remove elements of the complaint, but ultimately halted litigation by dismissing all seven of the plaintiffs’ claims.

The case was brought in March by advocates and residents of a heavily polluted sector in Louisiana—also called “Cancer Alley"—against what they say are racist land use policies used by the local government to fill their neighborhoods with petrochemical facilities.

Barbier refused to tone down strong words describing the St. James Parish Council’s alleged racist practices used in the plaintiff’s complaint.

Just because the complaint contains “scandalous” language that “may offend Defendants’ sensibilities,” they didn’t prove that the offending paragraphs connecting the Parish’s activities to white supremacy should be stricken from the litigation entirely, according to Barbier.

“The Court and counsel have already reviewed the extensive historical recounting included in the complaint, and Defendants have not made it clear that this history has no possible bearing on the subject matter of this litigation,” according to the opinion. Barbier also ruled that the court would not award the defendants’ legal fees.

Still, the court dismissed all seven bids made by residents: two for lack of standing and five because the judge found them to be “effects” that stem from a single ongoing event, not individual violations.

“Plaintiffs’ claims against Defendants are based on one discrete action by Defendants: the adoption in 2014 of the Land Use Plan that explicitly directed the zoning of industrial plants into predominantly Black areas of St. James Parish and created buffer zones protecting predominantly white spaces,” Barbier wrote.

The claims were dismissed with prejudice, but plaintiffs could still appeal the decision.

Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson LLP represented the parish. The Center for Constitutional Rights and William P. Quigley of New Orleans represented plaintiffs Inclusive Louisiana and Mount Triumph Baptist Church. The Tulane Environmental Law Clinic represented plaintiff RISE St. James.

The case is Inclusive La. v. St. James Parish, E.D. La., No. 2:23-cv-00987, Order 11/16/23.