Picture walking through the grand halls of the Justice Department, where every plaque and marble column seems to carry the weight of American legal history.
Amid that tradition, a dramatic shake‐up is underway: the new head of the Civil Rights Division is sending shockwaves through the corridors, and she’s not looking back.
Saying Goodbye to “Woke” Warriors
Harmeet K. Dhillon, who took the reins of the Civil Rights Division under President Trump, has watched more than one hundred seasoned attorneys hand in their resignations.
Why? They told her they’d rather pursue what she calls “woke ideology” than enforce the old‐school civil rights laws she champions.
Her response? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
A Shift in Priorities: From Abortion Pickets to Campus Antisemitism
Under the previous administration, civil rights lawyers chased a wide array of cases—everything from protests outside abortion clinics to the rights of transgender inmates.
Now, Dhillon is refocusing her team on cases that Trump cares about: investigating antisemitism on college campuses and cracking down on sanctuary city policies she says worsen the migrant crisis.
A Generous Severance and a Hiring Sprint
With more than a hundred attorneys departing, Dhillon admits she’ll need to rebuild fast.
Those who leave are set to collect what she calls a “generous severance”—months of pay for doing nothing while they transition out.
Meanwhile, her office braces for a recruitment blitz to fill the suddenly empty desks.
Rolling Back Transgender Inmate Protections
One of Dhillon’s first orders of business: halting the Biden administration’s push to defend the rights of transgender prison inmates.
She’s dismissed those legal arguments as “junk science” and criticized the previous team for misreading disability law in a way she believes undermined the very people it was meant to protect.
Trump’s Proud New Chapter—or a Political Rally?
In March, President Trump himself strode into the Justice Department’s grand hall—the same stage where Attorney General Merrick Garland once announced investigations into him—and declared a “proud new chapter.”
His message was twofold: end the “weaponization” of government and celebrate his own victories over those he feels “betrayed” him.
Mixing Policy with Personal Grievances
Rather than stick to policy announcements, Trump used his speech to rehash old complaints—about campaign spying, family persecutions, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the case against him, which he emphatically (and expletively) dismissed as “bulls***.”
It was part victory lap, part personal vendetta, all under the banner of restoring “fair, equal and impartial justice.”
Filling the Ranks with Loyalists
Dhillon and Trump have stocked key DOJ positions with trusted allies: Pami Bondi, who defended him in his first impeachment, and two lawyers from his New York hush-money case.
Bondi’s first directive after confirmation? Order DOJ staff to “zealously defend” the presidency, cementing a clear shift in how civil rights enforcement will be handled moving forward.
The Audience and the Atmosphere
On that day, more than two hundred supporters—sheriffs, law-enforcement officers, Capitol Hill staffers, and families hit by the fentanyl epidemic—packed the hall, many sporting red “Make America Great Again” caps.
It felt less like a neutral policy briefing and more like an election rally, with every cheer reinforcing the message that this new Justice Department is firmly in Trump’s corner.
With the Civil Rights Division charting a new course and hundreds of attorneys heading for the exits, the Justice Department under Trump and Dhillon is set on a radically different path.
Only time will tell how this bold experiment will reshape the nation’s approach to civil rights enforcement.