The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is in upheaval amid a mass exodus of attorneys as the Trump administration moves to radically reshape the division, shelving its traditional mission and replacing it with one focused on enforcing the president’s executive orders.
Some 250 attorneys — or around 70% of the division’s lawyers — have left or will have left the department in the time between President Trump’s inauguration and the end of May, according to current and former officials.
It marks a dramatic turn for the storied division, which was created during the civil rights movement and the push to end racial segregation. For almost 70 years, it has sought to combat discrimination and to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans in everything from voting and housing to employment, education and policing.
Now, the administration is redirecting the division to enforce Trump’s executive orders, including ending the alleged radical indoctrination in schools, defending women from “gender ideology extremism,” and combatting antisemitism and purported anti-Christian bias.
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The changes are being implemented by the division’s new head, Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative attorney whom Trump appointed and the Senate confirmed in April.
Speaking at a recent Federalist Society event, Dhillon likened the division’s work under Democratic administrations to a speeding train. She said Republican administrations typically try to “just slow the train down.”
“There really hasn’t been a focus on turning the train around and driving it in the opposite direction. And that’s my vision of the DOJ civil rights [division],” she said. “We don’t just slow down the woke. We take up the cause to achieve the executive branch’s goals. This is the opportunity where we can ensure that our nation’s civil rights laws benefit all Americans, not just a select few.”
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