U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges Fifth Circuit to hold that Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) does not authorize disparate impact liability

Client(s) U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Jones Day filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce arguing that Congress never authorized a disparate impact theory of liability under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). Applying controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the brief explains that the text of ECOA does not authorize this effects-based form of liability. Instead, as the amicus brief further explains, some lower courts and, prior to November 2025, the federal government have assumed otherwise by incorrectly relying on post-enactment legislative history, rather than on the text adopted by Congress. Rejecting disparate impact liability under ECOA, the Chamber argues, will also harmonize the statute with the purposes of federal antidiscrimination law and the Constitution, while ensuring that borrowers can access credit on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Sixela Investment Group v. Hope Federal Credit Union, et al., No. 25-30345 (5th Cir.)