Environmental justice leaders gathered outside the U.S. District Court on Broad Street Friday to pray and to protest a recent ruling.

Lois Malvo, said the ruling had to do with removing citizens’ rights in terms of environmental issues.

“It’s important that citizens of all colors — white, blue, black, brown, whatever — stand together to fight for our lives. Without clean water, air and food to eat, we’re not going to survive,” she said, adding that more industry will lead to more pollution, which will lead to accelerated global warming and more severe weather events like Hurricane Helene.

The ruling was made by Lake Charles U.S. District Judge James D. Cain, Jr. who blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from considering disparate environmental harms in its enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, making permanent a temporary hold he issued in January.

Title VI prohibits intentional discrimination based on race in certain state programs. EPA, however, enacted regulations that attempted to extend Title VI’s prohibition to so-called “disparate impact” liability—that is, liability for conduct or a program that is not intentionally discriminatory, but that may have an allegedly discriminatory impact. EPA has attempted to use these regulations to advance EPA’s “environmental justice” agendas, said the state solicitor general in an email to the American Press.

“Every generation has to reclaim our right to freedom,” says local organizer Paul Geary. “Communities in Louisiana have been burdened by industrial pollution for way too long. Hope was in sight for these polluters to finally be held accountable, until the State of Louisiana decided to protect polluters instead of the people. We are demanding clean air, equal rights, and justice for all, because no one should have to choose between their health and their home.”