Harmeet Dhillon Overhauls DOJ Civil Rights Division

Since Harmeet Dhillon became chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in April 2025, the unit has undergone a rapid transformation. Over the past 18 months, officials say she has pushed out “hundreds of longtime attorneys” and replaced many with “inexperienced ideological allies.” The division’s focus has shifted toward cases aligned with former President Trump’s agenda, including voting-fraud investigations and lawsuits targeting alleged antisemitism at universities.

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The division has deployed monitors at state primary elections and filed lawsuits demanding voter-information from multiple states, actions described by state officials of both parties as overreach. A federal judge recently dismissed the division’s suit against Harvard, finding the alleged antisemitism “too isolated and episodic.” By contrast, housing and disability-rights sections continue traditional work, such as a 2024 lawsuit against Uber for denying rides to passengers with service dogs or wheelchairs.

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Current and former officials report that roughly 300 attorneys have left the division since the second Trump administration began, while the Justice Department says about 130 new attorneys have been hired. Up to 80 % of staff departed in a wave that “decimated the division’s institutional knowledge.” Critics note that the hiring process now bypasses career staff, allowing political appointees to lead selections—a departure from rules instituted after the George W. Bush era to shield hiring from partisan influence.

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She added that critics who label the work “weaponization” are “telling on themselves.” The Justice Department’s spokesperson reiterated that the hiring process remains unchanged and framed the new attorneys as “outstanding” hires strengthening enforcement.

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• “Those rules were put in place to prevent politics from dictating who gets a job with the Civil Rights Division rather than merit, rather than their experience and their skills and their commitment to civil rights work,” — Christy Lopez, georgetown law professor – Christy Lopez, Georgetown Law professor and former division attorney, warned that the original hiring rules were meant

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• “I could understand it if Harmeet wanted to bring in people who could both further the president's priorities and also continue with the division's enforcement work, its traditional enforcement work,” — Dena Robinson – Dena Robinson, former division attorney now with the ACLU, said she but noted that “that’s just not happening anymore.”

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• “The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology,” — Images When Harmeet Dhillon – Dhillon herself told Glenn Beck that “The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology.”

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These statements illustrate a deep split between the division’s new political orientation and concerns from former staff about loss of expertise and the politicization of civil-rights enforcement.

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