A civil rights lawsuit on behalf of residents in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” can proceed, a federal court ruled this month after a second attempt by the local civil parish to get the case dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said in a Feb. 9 ruling that the plaintiffs—a coalition of faith-based groups based in a predominantly Black stretch of Acadiana lined with petrochemical plants and oil refineries—have sufficient grounds to continue their complaint against elected officials leading St. James Parish.
The Black Catholic-founded nonprofits Inclusive Louisiana and RISE St. James, and Mt. Triumph Baptist Church of Donaldsonville, argue that local politicians have violated the 13th and 14th amendments by repeatedly approving questionable land use permits in Black areas of St. James Parish.
“Broadly, plaintiffs have traced the Parish’s current land use patterns directly to slavery and the plantation system,” wrote Barbier in his 34-page ruling.
“Particularly at the motion to dismiss stage, and accepting Plaintiffs’ allegations as true, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have more than sufficiently pleaded a plausible claim to relief under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.”
The 2023 case, Inclusive Louisiana v. St. James Parish, is one of several involving similar plaintiffs in St. James, part of an 85-mile region along the Mississippi River in Southeast Louisiana with more than 200 oil refineries and petrochemical plants. The operations represent a sixth of all American oil refining and latter roughly a quarter of the nation’s petrochemical output.
Cancer Alley’s resulting air quality has been shown to be highly polluted, regularly exceeding the threshold for cancer risk noted by the Environmental Protection Agency. Actual cancer rates in the region are among the highest in the nation, especially in “sacrifice zones,” where marginalized groups have been targeted by disinvestment and locally unpopular environmental policy decisions (some of them connected to fraud).
RISE St. James, led by a Black Catholic mother-daughter duo in Sharon and Shamell Lavigne, has been at the forefront of opposition to polluters and enablers at the local and state level. Sharon spoke on the federal judge’s decision this month in spiritual terms.
“How many of us have to die? This ruling affirms what we know in our hearts and our faith: God did not create our communities to be sacrificed,” she said.
“Our prayers, our ancestors, and our fight for justice have been heard. We will keep standing for life, dignity, and the sacredness of this land.”
Inclusive Louisiana, an ecumenical organization led by cofounders Gail LeBoeuf—also a Black Catholic—and Barbara Washington, said in a joint statement that Barbier’s decision is a “historic step toward justice.”
“The court’s decision to allow every one of our claims to move forward affirms what we have long known: environmental racism is real, and it must be confronted.”
BREAKING: A federal district court today when it ruled that groups representing residents of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley can proceed with their landmark lawsuit, stating: "Plaintiffs describe a land use pattern that quite literally originated in slavery." Learn more: ccrjustice.org/home/press-c...
— Center for Constitutional Rights (@ccrjustice.org) 2026-02-09T23:22:50.159Z
The case will now proceed toward a trial, with an answer to the plaintiff’s arguments due soon from St. James Parish. It is the third version of the complaint, the previous one having been dismissed by Barbier in late 2023. That decision was overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the plaintiffs, after which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Thereafter, the latest amendment to the complaint was filed in November 2025 by the plaintiffs’ lawyers, from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic. In December, St. James Parish again attempted to have the case dismissed, arguing that they cannot shield all residents from harm and that their land use decisions have no connection to slavery or race.
“They couldn’t protect everyone, or there would be no industry,” attorney Danielle “Dani” Borel said of the parish officials to Barbier in January. “There will always be someone unhappy.”
Following Barbier’s ruling against the parish, the case is now expected to move into the discovery phase, which typically lasts several months. It could go to trial later this year.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
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