The Civil Rights Division, long the crown jewel of the Justice Department, has been radically reshaped under President Trump, using its enforcement powers to pursue the president’s MAGA agenda.
Transcript
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
If the Justice Department has a crown jewel, it’s long been considered the Civil Rights Division. Over the past 18 months, President Trump has appointed leaders that have radically reshaped its work and workforce and used its enforcement powers to further the president’s agenda. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now. Good morning.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: Ryan, before we get into all of the changes, remind us what the Civil Rights Division does.
LUCAS: Historically, it has worked to combat discrimination and protect the constitutional rights of all Americans. And that’s in everything from voting and housing to policing, education, employment. The division’s priorities have certainly shifted a bit from administration to administration, but the core mission has remained consistent over the past 70-some years.
RASCOE: I feel like maybe you’re saying consistent until now in this second Trump administration.
LUCAS: Yeah. That’s right. Department veterans say that the Civil Rights Division has been turned on its head in the second Trump administration, and the changes are being driven by Harmeet Dhillon. She’s the Trump appointee now in charge of the division. She argues that over the years, the Civil Rights Division has switched from protecting the rights of all Americans to just protecting those of one segment of society – people of color.
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HARMEET DHILLON: As the logic goes, the white oppressors of years past kept Black and brown people down. Why not give them a taste of their own medicine? That’s the thinking, really, that underlies a lot of our civil rights enforcement work, and it is un-American. It is wrong.
RASCOE: How has Dhillon put her stamp on the division?
LUCAS: So I spoke with four current and former division attorneys about this. Most of them spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to journalists. They told me that one of the most fundamental ways that Dhillon has changed the division is by changing who works there. During her tenure, more than 300 veteran attorneys have left. Dhillon has replaced them with some 130 new hires. I’m told that there are now, in fact, more new hires in the division than there are veteran attorneys.
RASCOE: And how are they picking new attorneys to work in the Civil Rights Division?
LUCAS: Current and former officials tell me the division has changed the hiring process, essentially shrugging off rules that were put in place around two decades ago to insulate hiring from partisan political considerations. Now I’m told that political ideology appears to be a significant factor. Many of the folks who have been hired previously worked for conservative legal groups or Trump-aligned groups. That alone, of course, is not an issue. But it is when combined with the fact that current and former officials say most of the new hires don’t have much, if any, experience in civil rights enforcement.
RASCOE: And how does the department respond to these allegations?
LUCAS: Well, a department spokesperson denies that any changes have been made to the hiring process and certainly defends the new hires, saying that they are outstanding.
RASCOE: How has the work of the division changed, if at all?
LUCAS: Some of the most aggressive changes in work now being done has been on the voting front. The division has filed lawsuits demanding voter information from states, for example. That, of course, dovetails with President Trump’s focus on what he alleges is election fraud by noncitizens. Education has been another very active front. The division has accused a number of prominent law schools and medical schools of discriminating against white and Asian students. That’s one example. At the same time, the Civil Rights Division has dropped investigations into alleged constitutional violations by police departments.
Now, Dhillon defends the division’s work under her leadership. In a statement to NPR, she said civil rights laws exist to protect people from discrimination. And she says that is exactly what the division is doing now. But again, critics say the division is using its enforcement powers to go after the very communities that it was created to protect.
RASCOE: That’s NPR’s Ryan Lucas. Thank you so much for being here.
LUCAS: Thank you.
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