More than 200 former employees of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division signed the letter released Tuesday condemning the “near destruction” of the agency that is supposed to enforce U.S. civil rights laws and accusing political leadership of waging a campaign to purge professional experts from its ranks.
There was a mass exodus of lawyers earlier this year after political appointees fired career managers and sent staff menial work, unilaterally terminated the cases and made it clear that the department's focus would be enforcement Donald Trump's priorities. By May 1 of this year, the department had lost about 70% of its lawyers—a staggering number. The letter was released Tuesday to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the civil rights division's founding.
Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump ally who heads the civil rights division, welcomed the departure of career staffers, calling them activists who don't want to do the work being asked of them. “This couldn't be further from the truth. We left because the current administration has turned the Department's core mission on its head by largely abandoning its responsibility to protect civil rights,” the letter said. “Unable to draw on the expertise of career staff, the administration made a coordinated effort to oust us.” The letter was published by Link to Justicean organization created earlier this year to provide support to Department of Justice employees.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter goes on to detail how the division has abandoned civil rights enforcement, including dropping key cases involving voting rights, sexual abuse of unaccompanied migrant children, and numerous consent decrees involving police departments across the country. Dillon also urged the lawyers to leave and accept the paid leave offer and threatened to fire the employees if they did not do so, the letter said. Justice Department officials seemed caught off guard by how many people were leaving earlier this year and quietly asked employees: change your mind about leaving.
In April, Dillon sent out new “mission statements” for each of the civil rights division's divisions, which made it clear that the department would not focus on traditional civil rights enforcement. The voting section's mission statement, for example, made little mention of the landmark Voting Rights Act and instead made clear that the priority would be to identify voter fraud, which is extremely rare.
Much of the section's work this year has been suing states to try to obtain complete voter rolls. The department has dismissed all existing Voting Rights Act claims without consulting legal counsel and has not filed any new ones. Earlier this year this argued in favor narrowing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to make it harder for nonwhite voters to win cases.
The administration also used the unit to conduct investigations into anti-Semitism at universities, trying to force schools to pay millions in fines.
The decision to fire career managers from their sections earlier this year was also met with significant anxiety. Career managers often serve as a buffer between the department's political leadership and career lawyers. Their removal was seen as a disturbing attempt to open the door to political interference in the section's work.
“America deserves better,” the letter said. “The future of the Civil Rights Division is at risk, and with it the rights it protects. We hope that one day we can return the Division to its righteous work. Until then, we will continue to defend those rights and the Constitution wherever we are. We call on all Americans to join us. We demand that the Division enforce our civil rights laws and defend the Constitution's promise of equal justice for all.”
