Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative attorney, will have the authority to enforce — or not — federal statutes related to discrimination based on race, sex, disability, religion, or national origin.
Civil rights leaders are decrying President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, and the implications for Black communities and other marginalized groups.
As assistant attorney general of the civil rights office, Dhillon, a conservative attorney, will have the authority to enforce — or not — federal statutes related to discrimination based on race, sex, disability, religion, or national origin.
Given Trump’s pronouncements, Project 2025‘s proposals, and Dhillon’s legal record, the Civil Rights Division will likely abandon its tradition of combating racial bias and instead use the federal office to defend civil liberties and freedom of speech on behalf of conservatives.
“With the selection of Harmeet Dhillon — who has shown more interest in divisiveness rather than defending constitutional rights — the incoming administration has made clear that civil rights enforcement will be under attack from within,” said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Dhillon, who served in leadership roles in the California Republican Party and Republican National Committee, has dedicated her career to conservative legal issues through her legal firm and nonprofit, Center for American Liberty.
Wiley said that Dhillon, who legally advised Trump’s failed 2020 campaign and defended his false claims of voter fraud, has worked to “restrict” voting access, which has been a major concern for Black voters amid a flurry of racial gerrymandering cases over the years, rather than “fighting to expand voting access.”
“Instead of defending election results and demonstrating concern for free and fair elections, for example, she helped fuel the big lie in many forms, challenging election results on several occasions based on misrepresentations and outright lies,” said Wiley.
Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, told theGrio that Dhillon’s nomination is “keeping with the theme of Donald Trump,” which is to hire individuals who will be “loyal to him.” Selecting Dhillon, he said, shows the president-elect has “no regard for what the true purpose of the Department of Justice is, particularly the Civil Rights Division.”
“These loyalists are going to implement Trump’s agenda – the Project 2025 agenda – which is also about ‘law and order,’” said Brown. He continued, “It’s going to eliminate DEI programs. It’s actually going to increase police brutality because it’s going to have less accountability. Our voting rights are already under attack. It’s only going to get worse.”
Under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the first woman and Black woman to hold the office, the DOJ Civil Rights Division has steadily filed lawsuits challenging voting rights laws it says discriminate against Black and brown voters. The division also launched federal investigations of police departments accused of racial bias and brutality; and prosecuted individuals charged for committing violent crimes, including the 2022 mass shooting of 10 Black Americans at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
“We need a leader at the Civil Rights Division who understands that civil rights protections are not partisan or political positions open to the ideological whims of those who seek to elevate a single religion or to protect political allies or particular groups over others,” said Wiley.
“We need a leader who will vigorously enforce our civil rights laws and work to protect the rights of all of our communities — including in voting, education, employment, housing, and public accommodations — without fear or favor.”
Wiley noted that America’s federal civil rights laws “transformed this nation, outlawing discrimination in nearly every facet of American life and helping to increase life expectancies of Black people, providing for more protections against abusive policing, and ensuring increased voter participation.”
In the absence of a champion for civil rights defending actual civil rights laws, she lamented that the department would be without someone to “move our nation forward and not backward.”
Jamarr Brown of Color of Change said that Trump and all his nominees and appointees are “not interested in the rule of law” or “equal protection under the law.” He added, “They’re interested in using the Department of Justice to advance their political agenda.”
Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson told theGrio he believes the fight to protect civil rights in this country is headed for a “rough ride”
Citing the Trump administration’s hostility to racial equity, the congressman told theGrio, “This country got to be great because we gave everyone an opportunity to participate. This country is great because that participation allowed us to get to be number one in the world”
He added, “And when we choose an alternate road that doesn’t involve everyone in this country, then that greatness that we have enjoyed is at risk.”
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