70% of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division lawyers are leaving because of Trump’s reshaping

NPR

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.

Five current or former department officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, say the current effort amounts to the dismantling of the division and its traditional mission.

“The Civil Rights Division exists to enforce civil rights laws that protect all Americans,” said Stacey Young, a former division attorney who left the department in late January. “It’s not an arm of the White House. It doesn’t exist to enact the president’s own agenda. That’s a perversion of the separation of powers and the role of an independent Justice Department.”

It is normal for the division’s priorities to shift from administration to administration, particularly from one party to another. But the changes underway now are far beyond the normal recalibration, current and former employees and outside observers say.

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.”