Cancer Alley residents are challenging St. James Parish Council’s decades-old practice of placing plants in majority-Black districts

April 9, 2025, New Orleans – Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that groups representing residents of majority-Black districts in St. James Parish may proceed with their lawsuit seeking a moratorium on the construction and expansion of petrochemical plants. Inclusive Louisiana, Mt. Triumph Baptist Church, and RISE St. James sued St. James Parish  in 2023, charging that its land use practices are unconstitutionally discriminatory.  

“The pendulum of Justice has swung in our favor. We have been sounding the alarm for far too long that a moratorium is needed to halt the expansion of any more polluting industries in our neighborhoods, and too many lives have been lost to cancer,” said Gail LeBoeuf of Inclusive Louisiana. 

Added and Barbara Washington, also of Inclusive Louisiana, “We are so grateful that the judges have allowed our moratorium case to continue in court. Now, on to the next battle.”

St. James Parish is packed with the kind of petrochemical plants that give Cancer Alley its name, but the districts do not share the burden equally. Since the construction of the first plant in the parish in 1958, at least 20 of 24 have been built in the 4th and 5th Districts, the two highest majority Black districts in the parish. In such areas, dubbed “sacrifice zones,” the majority-Black residents face increased risks of cancer, respiratory ailments, and newborn health harms. 

Filed on the plaintiffs’ behalf by lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and Tulane Law Clinic, their lawsuit argues that the disproportionate placement of petrochemical plants in majority Black areas, violates, among other laws, the 13th Amendment as a vestige of slavery and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

“We welcome the court’s ruling. Now we can finally get back to the urgent work of addressing the public health emergency caused by the Parish’s constant and easy approval of every request by any petrochemical company seeking to operate in these majority-Black communities,” said Pam Spees, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.  

"We are glad the court has found in our favor, and we thank God, too, for this victory," said Pastor Harry Joseph of Mount Triumph Baptist Church. "This moratorium is important for the people in this area. We've been battling to achieve it for a long time. Instead of the Parish issuing a moratorium on the solar industry, we need one on the types of industry that are hurting us. The St. James Parish needs to really start helping the people of this Parish."

Last spring, the district court judge dismissed most claims on grounds that a one-year statute of limitations had expired, pegging it to a 2014 ordinance zoning large portions of the 4th and 5th Districts for industrial use. But today, the appellate court agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that the ordinance was not the singular basis of their claims; rather, it was further evidence of the Parish’s racial discrimination and merely codified practices that had long preceded it and that have since persisted. 

The Appeals Court also rejected the district judge’s finding that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring a claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the Louisiana Constitution’s protection of historic, linguistic, and cultural origins.. In allowing the plaintiffs to pursue their claims, the Fifth Circuit judges accepted their argument that the council itself has made decisions that have predictably resulted in harm, including destruction of the graves of people once enslaved in the area. 

For more information on the lawsuit, please see the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case page. 

See more about Inclusive Louisiana and the Center for Constitutional Rights on the groups’ websites. Mount Triumph Baptist Church and RISE St. James are also plaintiffs in the case.