Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is often referred to as the “sleeping giant” of civil rights law. It is a “giant” because it prohibits any form of race discrimination engaged in by any recipient of federal financial assistance, and because the remedy set forth in the statute for a violation is the termination of federal funds. And it is “sleeping” because, except for a brief moment during the desegregation era, the federal government had never seriously attempted to terminate a recipient’s federal grants for a violation of the statute. Nor had the federal government seriously attempted to terminate federal grants for violating the other civil rights statutes that Congress based on Title VI: Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination by education programs that receive federal financial assistance; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits disability discrimination by recipients of federal financial assistance; and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits race, sex, and disability discrimination by health programs that receive federal financial assistance. Because many states, localities, and nonprofit entities rely heavily on federal funds, the authority to cut off those funds gave the federal Executive Branch a powerful tool to force those entities—notably including public and private universities—to do their bidding. But that powerful tool has largely lain dormant.

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© 2026 Case Western Law Review. Reproduced with permission.

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