One of the most effective and enduring institutions won by the Civil Rights Movement – the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice – is under assault.
The Trump administration is attempting to remake the department to serve its ideological agenda. Under the new head of the civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, the division is shifting focus from defending the rights of marginalized groups to targeting what the administration describes as “woke ideology.” In one particularly egregious early step towards that goal, the administration has removed senior civil servants working in the voting rights section. It also ordered attorneys to abandon voting rights cases.
Born from Black Americans’ struggle to end Jim Crow laws, the division has long served as a federal check against systemic discrimination at state and local levels. It enforces federal civil rights laws in the areas of housing, education, policing, employment, and voting to protect people from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, national origin, and other protected traits.
The Civil Rights Division once “precleared” changes to election laws in states with histories of discrimination to stop them from repeating past harms. It also participated in lawsuits to prevent and reverse laws that would infringe upon the right to vote.
Since January, attorneys in the Civil Rights Division have steadily resigned. The exodus accelerated last week with over 100 attorneys leaving because of the office’s shift in core priorities. Dhillon has said that those unwilling to align with the administration’s vision should leave.
Instead of enforcing federal laws that protect against voter suppression, racial discrimination, police misconduct, and barriers to access for people with disabilities, this administration has prioritized ideological battles aimed at dismantling civil and human rights protections. It appears to be hostile to the goals of the civil rights movement.
The recent crisis arrives amid the Supreme Court’s ongoing erosion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crown jewel of civil rights legislation. With the court striking down the preclearance program and making it harder to challenge racial discrimination in voting cases, the Civil Rights Division is one of the few remaining vehicles for federal enforcement of voting rights. Its weakening is a direct threat to the ability of Black people and other voters to participate freely and fully in our democracy.
