The end of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division as we know it
In a little more than one hundred days, the Trump Administration has significantly dismantled the federal government. In time, virtually every American will experience the negative impact of that dismantling in various ways.
One core component of the dismantling has been to transform the missions of federal agencies from fulfilling the responsibilities set forth by Congressional legislation to satisfying the whims of the President and his acolytes. A second is to move out most of the federal workforce that existed as of January 20, 2025, and either not replace employees or replace them with people who will unflinchingly do what they are told.
The component of the federal government I know best — the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice where I worked from 1997 to 2003 — illustrates what the federal government is becoming.
The Civil Rights Division has a long and storied history. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 — the first major federal civil rights legislation since the 1870s — created the Division. As the Division’s website says as of this writing, “Congress created the Civil Rights Division in 1957 to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society. The Division enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status, military status and national origin.” As of today, the Division has the responsibility of enforcing twenty-one civil and twenty-three criminal statutes through nine subject-matter based sections and policy and appellate sections.
Like most components of the federal government, the Division was designed to serve both Republican and Democratic governments: from 1957 to January 20, 2025, the Division served seven Republican and six Democratic Administrations, including a prior Trump Administration. Though there have differences in priorities depending on what President is in office and who is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, the Division has been able to remain intact. For example, I know numerous Civil Rights Division alumni who stayed for the entire twelve-year period when Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were President.
The same will not hold true for this Presidency. I was told recently that there were 380 attorneys in the Division as of January 20, 2025, and within weeks only about 150 of those attorneys will remain. In several of the sections, all or most of the managers have resigned or have indicated that they will be resigning. Unlike other components of government, the Administration has been able to accomplish this transformation of the workforce without firing people, at least so far. And Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, was only sworn in on April 7.
How has this been accomplished? The primary means has been to send clear signals that the function of the Civil Rights Division is to serve the President’s priorities, not enforce the federal civil rights laws. Shortly after the change in Administration, the Department transferred key career Division leaders, including the Chief and Principal Deputy of the Appellate Section to a “sanctuary cities enforcement working group.” The Department started withdrawing from voting rights discrimination cases brought on behalf of voters of color. It unilaterally ended some police reform consent decrees with cities.
Things quickly escalated after Dhillon was sworn in. The remaining career Deputy Assistant Attorney General (there are two DAAGs that report to the Assistant Attorney General that hold over between administrators) announced that he would be resigning shortly after meeting with Dhillon. Other managers were reassigned. Dhillon rewrote the Division’s mission statement to focus on enforcing the President’s agenda. She also sent memoranda to individual sections reframing their focus on issues that further the Trump agenda while largely ignoring the primary statutes the section exists to enforce, such as the Voting Rights Act for the Voting Section and the Fair Housing Act for the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section.
All of this is the stick for getting people to leave. The carrot is offering people a financial incentive to leave — employees have until today to apply to be placed on administrative leave until the end of September and they will get paid during that time.
Up until the recent events, Division employees I spoke to fell across a spectrum on how likely it was that they would be leaving. Some people decided to leave after Trump was elected and others were holding out hope because they loved their jobs and believed in the mission. I spoke to one friend the day before Dhillon was sworn in and he was still holding out hope. I have not spoken to him since, but he is a manager in one of the sections where I have been told that all the managers will be resigning.
Division press releases issued since Dhillon began give us a glimpse of what the Division of what it will be doing and what it will not be doing for the remainder of the Trump Administration. Most of the non-criminal matters involve supporting freedom of religion issues or participating in the challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The press release that saddens and angers me most is DOJ’s termination of its settlement with Alabama and one of the counties in its Black Belt, Lowndes County. The press release proudly announces that the termination advances “President Trump’s Mandate to End Illegal DEI and Environmental Justice Policies.” What was the case about? The failure of Alabama and Lowndes County to provide an adequate sewage system to a predominantly black group of residents, resulting in raw sewage in their yards and accompanying health risks. DOJ had reached an agreement in 2023 with the Alabama of Public Health where ADPH would help residents have proper sanitation systems. That agreement is now terminated. Instead of bragging about this, Dhillon should be ashamed.
This is what we are faced with for the next three and three-quarter years in the Civil Rights Division and the executive branch as a whole: federal agencies that follow the dictates of one person and his friends while largely ignoring their Congressionally mandated responsibilities. We progressives are going to have work double: both to substitute for the Civil Rights Division in enforcing the civil rights laws where we can and oppose the Division where it is on the opposite side of civil rights.
And, one day, some of us will participate in the rebuilding of the Division. Until then, justice will not be served.