How the Trump Administration Is Making Civil Rights Enforcement Great Again

While federal agencies’ civil rights divisions under previous Republican administrations have primarily assumed a more defensive posture aimed at slowing down left-wing activity, the Trump administration is going on offense.

“In prior Republican administrations, the focus has been to just slow down the bad things that the civil rights division was doing in a prior Democrat administration,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told The Daily Signal. “That’s not our view at all.”

“We’re definitely doing that,” Dhillon continued, “but we’re also focusing on using the civil rights laws for good.”

The Justice Department is the lead agency for enforcing federal civil rights laws. Dhillon oversees its civil rights division, which enforces the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and laws dealing with voting rights; racial and sex discrimination; antisemitism; employment discrimination; veterans and disability rights; and more.

She is employing a different strategy than some of her Republican predecessors. She isn’t just ending the weaponization of the DOJ that occurred under the Biden administration, she’s using the tools she says were abused by former Attorney General Merrick Garland to advance the civil rights of all Americans.

“It’s incredible to see this colorblind, sex-blind enforcement of the law,” she said.

For instance, the DOJ’s civil rights division announced a half million-dollar settlement on behalf of military service members who received unlawful termination charges from their cell phone carriers.

“Some of the cases we do aren’t political at all,” she said. “They’re just advancing the civil rights of Americans, and so it’s really exciting to be able to do that as your day job.”

Rather than debilitating the civil rights division, Dhillon is beefing it up by hiring lawyers “who are going to pursue the priorities of this administration.”

“It is a fundamental difference of opinion between us and the prior administration that we believe the civil rights laws apply to all Americans,” Dhillon said, “and the United States Supreme Court’s precedents are increasingly rolling in and proving our point before the recent Supreme Court decision that said that majority plaintiffs in employment discrimination don’t have a higher burden of proof than minority plaintiffs.”

She was referring to the recent high court decision that struck down a practice by some lower courts requiring a higher burden of proof for those in so-called majority groups (white people, etc.) when trying to prove they were discriminated against in employment decisions.

“We need good men and women to join us to help enforce federal civil rights law,” Dhillon said.

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