BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Residents living in “Cancer Alley” can move forward with a lawsuit against St. James Parish, in an effort to stop toxic industrial plants in majority Black districts.
In February, a federal district court ruled the plaintiffs can move forward with their claims that the Parish’s land use and zoning practices concentrate pollution in predominately Black neighborhoods and potentially violate the Constitution, specifically the Thirteenth Amendment as a remnant of slavery and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Kayla Vinson, staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights told Louisiana First News that the lawsuit offers a path forward for preventing petrochemical plants and refineries from being placed in majority Black districts in the Parish which has not been done since an official land use plan was enacted in 2014…