Captain Plan→it

The lawsuit, filed Aug. 6, accuses state officials of discriminating against minorities by refusing to include public transit improvements in the $1.7 billion reconstruction of the crossroads of I-94, I-894 and U.S. Highway 45. The lawsuit asks a federal judge in Madison to order the state to redo its study of the project’s environmental impact to address that issue.

Part of the legal basis for the litigation is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits agencies that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age or disability. For years, civil rights groups and transit advocates have argued that state authorities have been discriminating in favor of highways that benefit white suburbanites and against transit projects that would benefit urban minorities without cars.