A panel of federal appeals court judges has revived a lawsuit against St. James Parish government that seeks to pause any new industrial development in the area.
The lengthy lawsuit, filed in 2023, attempts to paint a comprehensive picture of a long-standing pattern of discrimination against the parish’s two majority-Black districts. All but four of the parish’s 20 petrochemical plants are located in those districts. The claims were brought by a mix of residents, community groups and a local church.
The Wednesday (April 9) decision by the three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit represented a rare win for local environmental advocates as the Trump administration works to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice and civil rights offices and continues its attempt to roll back regulations on pollution aimed at protecting human health. Federal officials have called such initiatives “wasteful” despite a lack of evidence.
The lawsuit accuses the parish of violating plaintiffs’ constitutional and statutory rights by disproportionately rubberstamping applications for toxic chemical facilities in their districts while denying requests to build in the parish’s whitest districts. The complaint alleges that the industrial expansion has lowered property values, led to the desecration of local cemeteries and contributed to extensive health issues.
In 2021, a peer-reviewed study by Tulane University estimated that, each year, about 85 cancer cases in Louisiana are caused by hazardous air pollution. St. James Parish was one of the hotspots in the heavily-industrialized, 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River nicknamed “Cancer Alley.”
U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier dismissed the lawsuit in 2023, stating the plaintiffs either waited too long for most of the claims or that the parish couldn’t be held responsible for actions taken by private companies. But the Fifth Circuit panel unanimously overturned Barbier’s reasoning.
The panel’s opinion, authored by Clinton appointee Carl E. Stewart, said the allegations included examples of discrimination occurring within the timeframe allowed. The opinion also said responsibility for disrupting the cemeteries could be traced back to the parish’s land use decisions.
The other two judges on the panel were Patrick Higginbotham, a Ronald Reagan appointee, and Catharina Haynes, a George W. Bush appointee.
Much of Barbier’s dismissal hinged on the assertion that the lawsuit was based on St. James’ 2014 land use plan. The land use plan explicitly prevented industrial development in white areas while designating most of the Black districts for industry, leaving no buffer zones for residential areas or churches. If the claims were solely based on the 2014 plan, the lawsuit would have been filed past the statute of limitations, but the appellate judges disagreed.
“The District Court appears to have inaccurately concluded that the organizations’ alleged injuries stem from a single incident outside of the applicable limitations periods,” the judges wrote in the decision.
Shamyra Lavigne grew up in the parish and serves as the executive assistant for Rise St. James, one of the groups that filed suit. She said she was shocked and elated to hear the news.
“It was the absolute best feeling. It just goes all through your body. I’m just like, thank God,” Lavigne said.
Lavigne said on top of the efforts from the Trump administration, the state government had just announced a new proposal for a plant in Ascension Parish the day before the ruling came down. Lavigne said she and other advocates had felt beaten down.
“We’ve been feeling like we’ve taken 10 steps back, and so this is propelling us forward,” she said. “Victories still happen because we’re meant to win this fight.”
The ruling, Lavigne said, made her feel as though environmental groups like hers still had some tools available to try to address the hazards posed by pollution. If the lawsuit succeeds, she likened a pause on industrial plants to turning off the faucet on a “bathtub that’s overflowing with water.”
“It’s the first step to us being able to really deal with this issue,” she said.
The parish’s attorneys didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
The case will return to the district court for the lawsuit to be heard. The plaintiffs still have to prove their claims of racial and religious discrimination, as well as harm to property, based on the merits of their arguments. A trial hasn’t been scheduled yet.
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