Among other civil rights protections, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is Executive Order 12898, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. The Executive Order states, "Each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations." The FTA even has a powerpoint that explains how environmental justice laws specifically relate to transportation projects.

By having the Expo Rail Line Phase 1 operate in South LA with the safety hazards, traffic impacts and noise pollution from countless at-grade street crossings and street closures and train horns (among other adverse impacts), and having NONE OF THESE IMPACTS in the most affluent and only majority white census tract along the alignment (Culver City), the Expo Line Phase 1 project places a disproportionate adverse health, safety and environmental impact on majority-minority and poor communities. Therefore, the project and MTA are guilty of engaging in environmental racism. This is accented by the fact that MTA is spending more money in the 1 mile of the line west of La Cienega to the Robertson terminus than in the 4 miles in South LA from Vermont to La Brea.

Some have asked, how is it possible that some of our very own local African-American elected officials (Bernard Parks, Yvonne Burke, Jan Perry, and Herb Wesson) who owe their very seats to the blood, sweat and tears and lives of millions in the civil rights movement could possibly support such an egregious violation of clear environmental justice laws in their own backyard with the project they're in charge of building?