Why are LEP individuals protected from national origin discrimination under Title VI?
The Supreme Court decided over three decades ago that a federal fund recipient’s denial of an education to a group of non-English speakers violated Title VI and its implementing regulations. Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563, 569 (1974). As the Court explained, “[i]t seems obvious that the Chinese-speaking minority receive fewer benefits than the English-speaking majority from respondents’ school system which denies them a meaningful opportunity to participate in the educational program—all earmarks of the discrimination banned by” Title VI regulations. Id. at 568; see also id. at 570-71 (Stewart, J., concurring in result).
