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 ...