302
Stevens, J., dissenting
continued belief that Congress intended a private right of action to enforce both Title VI and its implementing regulations, I would answer the question presented in the affirmative and affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals as a matter of stare decisis.9
9 The settled expectations the Court undercuts today derive not only from judicial decisions, but also from the consistent statements and actions of Congress. Congress' actions over the last two decades reflect a clear understanding of the existence of a private right of action to enforce Title VI and its implementing regulations. In addition to numerous other small-scale amendments, Congress has twice adopted legislation expanding the reach of Title VI. See Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, § 6, 102 Stat. 31 (codified at 42 U. S. C. § 2000d-4a) (expanding definition of "program"); Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1986, § 1003, 100 Stat. 1845 (codified at 42 U. S. C. § 2000d-7) (explicitly abrogating States' Eleventh Amendment immunity in suits under Title VI).
Both of these bills were adopted after this Court's decisions in Lau, Cannon, and Guardians, and after most of the Courts of Appeals had affirmatively acknowledged an implied private right of action to enforce the disparate-impact regulations. Their legislative histories explicitly reflect the fact that both proponents and opponents of the bills assumed that the full breadth of Title VI (including the disparate-impact regulations promulgated pursuant to it) would be enforceable in private actions. See, e. g., Civil Rights Act of 1984: Hearings on S. 2658 before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 98th Cong., 2d Sess., 530 (1984) (memo from the Office of Management and Budget objecting to the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 because it would bring more entities within the scope of Title VI, thereby subjecting them to "private lawsuits" to enforce the disparate-impact regulations); id., at 532 (same memo warning of a proliferation of "discriminatory effects" suits by "members of the bar" acting as "private Attorneys General"); 134 Cong. Rec. 4257 (1988) (statement of Sen. Hatch) (arguing that the disparate-impact regulations go too far and noting that that is a particular problem because, "[o]f course, advocacy groups will be able to bring private lawsuits making the same allegations before federal judges"); see also Brief for United States 24, n. 16 (collecting testimony of academics advising Congress that private lawsuits were available to enforce the disparate-impact regulations under existing precedent).
Thus, this case goes well beyond the normal situation in which, "after a comprehensive reeaxmination and significant amendment," Congress "left intact the statutory provisions under which the federal courts had implied
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