Washington Times Commentary Editor Kelly Sadler interviews Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Justice Department.
[SADLER] The division that you’re now heading was weaponized under previous administrations, under the Obama administration, under the Biden administration, where there was all these frivolous lawsuits filed that a lot of conservatives thought were targeted directly at them, their religious beliefs, their ideology for just disagreeing with the Democratic regimes that were in charge. What have you encountered since coming and being appointed to your position? And how are you cleaning up your division?
[DHILLON] You’re correct that in prior administrations, Democrat administrations have typically been very aggressive in hiring and a very progressive interpretation of the civil rights laws, and then very selective as well in terms of what types of cases they would bring under the civil rights statutes that is our statutory mandate in civil rights division. So what I was asked to do when I took this job, I am a civil rights lawyer for several decades now, and so I came in with my own interests. But more importantly, the president’s agenda is his right to set as the head of the executive branch of the government, we’re part of that.
And so it was made clear to me that, you know, that’s our job is to enforce the civil rights laws.
Number one, I swear to do that in my testimony, but number two, really kind of move back to the center and fairness and equality for all Americans, not just privileges for some. And that’s been the hallmark of how we’ve done things here at the Department of Justice in general and specifically in the Civil Rights Division.
So my second week here, I made it clear to all the 400 plus lawyers here that their pet projects they were working on were going to have to be put on the shelf while we focused on the current administration’s priorities and people didn’t like that. Quite a few of them, over 200 decided to take early packages to leave the government. And so we are now working with the folks who are left as well as some political appointees and now starting to hire some more people here as well to enforce the civil rights laws in an even-handed fashion. And it’s a joy to do that on behalf of the United States.
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