from the efficiency-at-work dept
First, the Trump administration gutted the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, probably because it was too concerned about protecting constitutional rights. Whoever still remained was “allowed” to do whatever Trump’s DOJ (now headed by yet another regrettable Trump pick, Pam Bondi) wanted it to do… like go to bat for the Second Amendment, which has never been seriously threatened by anyone anywhere since its inception.
Whoever didn’t get fired for not being all-MAGA, all the time decided it was time to call it a career. Anyone who forgot to lie to courts or failed to push abject bullshit past federal judges was shown the door. And with the Civil Rights division (or CRT in DOJ parlance) down to just the Trump loyalists, it would have made sense to do as little as possible with these extremely limited resources.
But Trump wants more stuff to be done and he’s quickly running out of people with the civil rights litigation experience to do it, as Eric Katz reports for Government Executive.
The Justice Department is soliciting staff within its Civil Rights Division to take reassignments to fill vacancies in areas related to education, employment and voting, with leaders citing the “deep need” created by significant vacancies.
The requests come as the division has shed hundreds of employees—or more than 60% of its workforce—since January and the Trump administration has assigned attorneys to tackle new priorities. The department is now scrambling to fill vacancies it has incentivized employees to leave through the extended paid leave program known as “deferred resignations,” early retirement and other offers.
Obviously, this has nothing to do with a suddenly renewed interest in investigating abusive law enforcement agencies or otherwise trying to restore and uphold a whole lot of severely bruised civil rights. No, this scramble for litigators is entirely propelled by the Trump administration’s undying interest in making America worse again.
This version of the DOJ CRT is missing nearly three-quarters of its legal team thanks to Trump. And somehow the DOJ thinks the priorities of the Trump administration will attract some litigators who have left as well as convince others doing less heinous things (maybe!) this shift in focus will be good for their careers, even if it won’t do much for their souls.
The head of CRT, Harmeet Dhillon, has a list of priorities that all sound pretty good in theory: education, employment, and voting. In practice, it’s an absolute horror show.
In May, for example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche created the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative to investigate any recipient of federal funds that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion, allows antisemtism—which the administration has increasingly defined as college campuses that enable protests against the Israeli government—supports transgender women playing women’s sports or other perceived violations of administration policy.
[…]
Under its new mission statement, the voting section is now focused on ensuring accurate voter databases and eliminating fraud. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in a report he issued last week on the changes taking place at CRT that the section has gone “from protecting voting rights to restricting voting access.” The employment section has recently shifted away from pursuing cases in which organizations allegedly engaged in race-based pay discrimination.
Yep, these positions are open to anyone willing to help the DOJ censor students, mistreat transgender kids, support voter suppression efforts, and let companies get away with paying people less just because they aren’t white.
There’s nothing involving civil rights happening here, at least not in a positive way. Instead, the DOJ is hoping there are still enough lawyers left in the building to assist Trump in ideological lawfare efforts that most voters — even many of his own — don’t support.
This is an entire administration consumed with a undying passion for punching down. No one here is seeking to elevate anyone but themselves. The only thing we might be able to enjoy — at least for the time being — is that they’ve fired so many people they don’t have enough people left to help them with their punching.
Filed Under: civil rights, crt, dei, department of education, doj, lol lmao even, trump administration, voting rights
