The Leadership Conference Denounces Confirmation of Dhillon to Lead Civil Rights Division

Civil Rights Enforcement News 04.3.25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patrick McNeil, [email protected] 

WASHINGTON — Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an advisor at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Senate confirmed Harmeet Dhillon to serve as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice:

“Harmeet Dhillon is not a civil rights lawyer and has no business leading the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Senators who voted to confirm Ms. Dhillon have failed their constituents and our country. They have further undermined the independence of the DOJ and are complicit in this administration’s dangerous agenda to reverse the hard-won gains of the civil rights movement. This confirmation is insulting, and it should alarm everyone that an election denier is now in charge of enforcing the Voting Rights Act, that an anti-LGBTQ+ activist is now tasked with protecting the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people in America, and that yet another one of Trump’s personal lawyers is now in a leadership role at the nation’s signature agency for the enforcement of our federal civil rights laws. The Department of Justice is supposed to serve the people, not the president, but today’s confirmation further compromises that sacred obligation.

“The Leadership Conference coalition fought for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which created the division and authorized the position that Ms. Dhillon will now hold. We are offended by her confirmation, which we know will put real people’s lives, livelihoods, education, housing, health care access, and so much more at risk. It will deeply impact our communities, who depend on the division to investigate police departments that have a pattern of police abuse, to ensure their schools aren’t discriminating against children because of who they are, to safeguard their right to vote and have their vote counted, to protect their access to lifesaving health care, and more. Still, we are resolved to fight on — every day — for fundamental rights and for the future of our multiracial democracy at a time when the DOJ is brazenly and shamefully attacking them. The Civil Rights Division should be in the business of protecting rights and freedoms rather than attacking civil rights with the full force and resources of the DOJ. The civil rights community will be watching. We will hold Ms. Dhillon accountable and will continue to insist that our federal civil rights laws be enforced, that the DOJ serve the American people, and that this administration’s cruel and dangerously regressive agenda be stopped.”

This week, The Leadership Conference and 70 other organizations wrote to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to sound the alarm about the department’s efforts to undermine the nation’s federal civil rights laws and to demand that the DOJ and Civil Rights Division advance — rather than corrode — civil rights protections under law.

Leadership Conference resources

  • The Leadership Conference and 75 national organizations wrote to senators in opposition to Ms. Dhillon’s confirmation. Read the letter here.
  • Following Ms. Dhillon’s testimony before the committee, The Leadership Conference released a memo highlighting many of her troubling responses. Read it here.
  • For more information about the history of the Civil Rights Division, the importance of strong leadership, and the recent whiplash in federal civil rights enforcement, read our brief here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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